Kolkata: The swine flu toll in West Bengal rose to 21 with a septuagenarian woman from the city dying of the disease Monday, a senior Health Department official said.
"A woman patient in her 70s died due to swine flu at a private hospital this afternoon. The woman was diabetic and was suffering from other ailments besides swine flu which complicated her case," West Bengal Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), Moloy Dey told PTI.
"She was critical for a long time and her condition deteriorated yesterday and she passed away today," he said.
In the past 24 hours, 12 persons tested positive with the H1N1 virus taking the total number of infected people in the state to 323, he said.
Out of the 12 new cases, seven were from the city while two were from North 24 Parganas district and one case each was reported from South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly districts.
So far, 227 patients have been discharged from different hospitals after their complete recovery from the disease.
"We have released 16 persons in the last 24 hours after they completely recovered from swine flu," Dey said adding that at the moment 75 patients were being treated at different hospitals across the state.
