A 74-year-old man from Palpa has died of swine flu. Dr Uma Shankar Prasad Chaudhary, chief of the District Health Office, said Man Bahadur Chidi of Kaseni in Mathagadhi-3 died on Saturday while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kathmandu. Chidi was referred to Vayodha Hospital in Kathmandu from Lumbini Medical College of Prabhas for further treatment, said Dr Chaudhary.

The National Public Health Laboratory in Teku confirmed that Chidi had tested positive for swine flu. Two patients who have been suspected to have been infected with swine flu virus are undergoing treatment at Lumbini Medical College. Krishna Parajuli, an information officer at the medical college, said three patients were airlifted to Kathmandu on Friday after suspecting that they had been infected with swine flu virus. 

A medical team of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), which had arrived in Palpa for an on-field inspection, had collected blood and sputum samples of eight patients from the medical college and sent them to Kathmandu for lab tests. Death toll from swine flu over the past two weeks has now reached nine across the country according to reports from district public health offices.

However, the EDCD said it could confirm only six deaths so far due to the disease and that it is holding a review meeting on Sunday to study the details collected from district public health offices.  

Swine flu this season was first detected in Waling, Syangja after a person from the district died last month at the TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu where had been brought for treatment. 

Cough, fever, lethargy, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, vomiting and diarrhoea are common symptoms of swine flu. If anyone develops one of these symptoms, he/she should immediately seek medical attention, doctors say. 

Experts have urged caution in view of the rising number of cases of swine flu across the country.