Kolkata: 57-year-old Salt Lake woman 10th swine flu victim since January

KOLKATA: Even as summer is peaking, swine flu refuses to abate. A 57-year-old homemaker from Salt Lake’s BE Block became the latest victim to fall prey to H1N1 on Sunday. Rajani Dhandania was undergoing treatment at AMRI Hospital in Salt Lake, where she died on Sunday night — two days after she was admitted.
This was the 10th death due to swine flu in the city this year.

Dhandania was brought to the hospital on May 9 with severe respiratory distress. Hospital sources said her condition deteriorated fast, despite treatment. “Making her condition more complex was the fact that the patient had various co-morbid conditions,” said pulmonologist Angushuman Mukhopadhyay who was treating her.
According to doctors, Dhandania was brought to the hospital in a very critical condition. Along with H1N1, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Her co-morbid conditions such as obesity, hypothyroidism and type II diabetes made it difficult for doctors to save her.
The family first took her to a local doctor when she started complaining of fever, cold and cough and respiratory problem. “We admitted her to the hospital as advised by the local doctor. The swab test results confirmed H1N1 influenza,” her husband Pawan said.
Earlier, Krishna Sharma (74) from Naihati fell prey to swine flu on April 18. Sharma, too, had various co-morbid conditions. “Children whose immune systems are not fully developed, the aged with co-morbid conditions and those with ailments like cancer, which compromises their immunity, are at risk. In most cases, they are the ones who lose their lives to swine flu,” a doctor said.
Doctors, however, said that this one was one of the sporadic cases and that the virus had already peaked between January and March.
“This one was one of those stray cases at the end of the surge,” said Mukhopadhyay.