Three more die of swine flu in Islamabad

 ISLAMABAD: Three more people fell prey to swine flu on Thursday, as  more than 13 others were shifted to hospitals, a private news channel reported quoting the Ministry of Health.

The PIMS has formed an isolation ward comprising two beds where the patients are under proper treatment. The health ministry stated that samples from Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan had been received on suspicion of swine flu.

Earlier, five more patients affected by the swine flu virus were shifted to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan, on Wednesday raising the number of patients affected by the virus to 24.

Sources said that 40-year-old Sallah Arfa and 35-year-old Sultan of Dera Ismail Khan, 39-year-old Shehnaz of Sargodha, 10-year-old Iqra from Jampur and 50-year-old Attya from Dera Ghazi Khan were brought to the Nishtar Hospital.

Swine flu virus mostly attacks weaker and less immune people. In 2009-10, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic spread from central Mexico to other countries, including India, killing an estimated 284,000 people, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 2 700 died in India of swine flu between May 2009 and December 2010. Last year, India recorded 218 swine flu related deaths and 937 cases down from 2013 when 699 had died.