India’s worst swine flu day till now

TOLL SOARS BY 5 TO 12: ANOTHER WOMAN IN CITY, 2 KIDS, 2 35-YR-OLDS; HALF THE DEATHS IN PUNE ALONE  Most Schools, All Colleges To Shut For A Week TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Mumbai: Panic seems to have taken a higher toll than the swine flu pandemic with school after school in the city deciding to close down for the week. A major reason for the closure is the fact that at least 15 schoolkids have tested positive in Mumbai and its satellite townships of Navi Mumbai and Thane since Pune schoolgirl Reeda Shaikh died of swine flu last week.      Although schoolkids comprise just 15% of the total number of positive cases (99) in Mumbai, neither parents nor schools seem to be willing to heed the central government's guidelines that prohibit indiscriminate closure of schools given the fact that H1N1 is known to severely affect children and the elderly. In Vadodara, a 7-year-old girl died of swine flu on Tuesday.      Meanwhile, Mumbai woke up to its second swine flu death with a 63-year-old woman, Syeda Dorjiwala, dying at a private hospital in south Mumbai on Tuesday. Late at night, a 35-yearold executive from Pimpri died of suspected H1N1 at Sassoon Hospital in Pune. Besides the 7-year-old girl in Vadodara, a 13-yearold girl in Pune and a 35-year-old man in Thiruvananthapuram also succumbed to the virus, bringing the country-wide toll to 12.      Some of the Mumbai schools which have called off classes are Bombay Scottish, Balmohan Vidya Mandir, Shardashram, Avabai Petit, Dr Antonio D'Silva, Mary Immaculate, St Francis D'Assisi and Sarvodaya. Sensing an opportunity, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena went around forcibly closing schools in central Mumbai. By Tuesday evening, the College Principals Association asked all non-government colleges to remain shut till Sunday, saying there was a lot of pressure on them from students and parents for this.      In Thane, authorities decided to shut the 132 primary municipal schools for one week. Their counterparts in Navi Mumbai went a step further by ordering all the 150 schools and around 100 higher education institutes and diploma centres to shut down till August 16.      In another development, 19 private and 2 railway hospitals have agreed to screen and treat H1N1 patients. They assured the government that they would not charge for medicines or swab tests. Patients will only be charged for the hospital stay. However, these hospitals can start their service only after health and civic officials give them the green signal in a week's time.  DID YOU KNOW?  l Swiss pharma major Roche is making a killing on Tamiflu. By the end of the year, it expects to rake in £1.2 billion, or almost Rs 10,000 crore, through sales of its bestseller globally  l It's not only pharma firms and chemists who have struck it rich. In the last two weeks, sales of face masks, liquid hand sanitizers, anti-bacterial hand washes, immunity builders, surface cleaners and vitamin tablets have soared in Mumbai, Pune and a few other cities  l The top 5 searches on Google in India on Tuesday all related to swine flu. These included Virenza (allopathic medicine), Influenzinum (homoeopathic drug) and Giloy (a herb) besides queries about Nilgiri oil, fennel seeds and a preventive 'super diet'. Globally, 'swine flu symptoms India' was trending at 6th position l 19 private and 2 railway hospitals in the city have agreed to start screening and treating H1N1 patients, who will only have to pay for their hospital stay. However, these will be ready only by next week l Govt has agreed to city schools' proposal to cancel unit tests  l A majority of citizens in an SMS poll conducted by BMC said schools and public venues should be shut for up to 10 days  Top10 Killers In India Numbers in '000 Heart Diseases  2,810  Respiratory Diseases  1,733  Accidents  800  Perinatal (Low Birth Weight)  762  Cancer  745  Diarrhoeal Diseases  456  TB  365  Digestive Diseases  342  DPT, Measles  287  Intentional Injuries  250 Tuesday's Victims  Sanjay Mistry (35)  Pimpri  Syeda Dorjiwala (63), Mumbra Markos Wilson (35)  Thiruvananthapuram Arya Burade (7) Vadodara Shruti Gawde (13) Pune VIGNESHWARA VERSUS VIRUS: An artist at work on a Ganesh idol at a Lalbaug workshop on Tuesday