Instead of 21, BMC puts swine flu toll at 16

While Mumbai lost one more victim to swine flu on Tuesday, the BMC’s death investigation review committee has pegged the total number of deaths so far at 16 instead of 21. According to the committee, five others had tested positive for H1N1 but died of other complications.

A 35-year-old female from Borivali had been admitted to city’s Karuna hospital for swine flu-like symptoms. She was transferred to Kasturba hospital on February 27 where she was taking treatment until she succumbed to the disease on Tuesday due to Sepsis with Bilateral Pneumonitis with ARDS. Besides, the city reported 34 new cases of swine flu on Tuesday of which 27 are Mumbaikars and seven are outstation patients admitted to the city for treatment. Of these, five are children.

But like in case of every epidemic, this time too the BMC is ambiguous about the procedure in which deaths are reviewed. When the city suffered an epidemic-like outbreak of dengue last year, the BMC pegged the total number of deaths at far lesser than had actually occurred. Citizens are wondering whether this time too, the civic body is trying to play down the number of swine flu deaths to avoid criticism.

“The committee reviews all the deaths every once in a while. It is comprised of eminent microbiologists, physicians, infectious diseases experts etc and is headed by the BMC’s executive health officer. The committee met on Tuesday and reviewed all the deaths after which it was found that five had tested positive for swine flu but had died of other complications,” informed Dr Mangala Gomarem, head of BMC’s Epidemiology department.