Source: The Sangai Express
Tezpur /Gangtok, August 21 2009:
An 18-year-old girl today died of suspected swine flu in Assam's Sonitpur district.
Police said Sunu Baishya, a higher secondary student and resident of Tezpur, died while being taken to Guwahati for treatment.
Family sources said Sunu complained of severe headache and had fever in the morning.
Fearing that it could be swine flu, she was taken to Guwahati for treatment.
But she died on the way and the body was brought back here.
The Assam health department, however, refused to confirm whether it was a case was of swine flu.
"We will not be able to confirm because the patient was not brought here for treatment," an official said.
Three persons have tested positive for swine flu in the state and are undergoing treatment.
Meanwhile, in a relief for health authorities in Sikkim, samples of all three swine flu suspects were found negative today and no fresh cases were reported.
The swab samples taken from the three patients for testing of H1N1 virus turned out to be negative at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Kolkata, nodal medical officer for screening of swine flu cases Dr.N T Sherpa told PTI here.
The condition of the three patients, who were suffering from fever and throat infections since last week, substantially improved following treatment, he said.
On the overall situation, he said no swine flu case has been reported from any part of Sikkim with proper arrangements already in place at all government hospitals in the four districts.