22 fresh swine flu cases take India's total to 251

Twenty-two new cases of swine flu, highest in a day so far, were reported Wednesday in India taking to 251 the number of total confirmed cases of the influenza A(H1N1), which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared as "unstoppable" virus.

According to the health ministry, the new laboratory confirmed cases were reported from Delhi (7), Jalandhar (4), Cochin (2), Thiruvananthapuram (2), Mumbai (2), Pune (2), Hyderabad (1), Ahmedabad (1) and Bangalore (1).

According to the union health ministry, so far 1,293 persons have been tested, of whom 251 were positive for Influenza A(H1N1). Of these 251 positive cases, 141 have been discharged. The remaining 110 of them are admitted to the identified health facilities.

Five of the seven freshly confirmed cases in Delhi belong to one family and were among the group who returned from Malaysia. Another case from the group is a 45-year-old man and the seventh case is a 38-year-old man who travelled from Bangkok to New Delhi, a health ministry statement said.

The four cases from Jalandhar are from one family - a 45-year-old man, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. They had returned from San Francisco, US.

The four Kerala cases include two sisters who returned from Manchester, Britain, a 39-year-old man who travelled from Germany via Dubai, and a 60-year-old woman who contracted the disease through secondary infection.

The two cases from Mumbai are a seven-year-old old boy who travelled from Hong Kong and the second is a 26-year-old man who travelled from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Mumbai.

The two cases from Pune - a boy of 12 and a girl of the same age - are indigenous cases who contracted the disease in their school from other students who returned from the US and tested positive.

A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad who travelled from San Francisco has also tested positive.

From Bangalore, a 17-year-old girl who travelled from New York has tested positive and the solitary case reported from Ahmedabad is a 14-year-old girl, without any travel history.

Last updated on Jul 15^th, 2009 at 21:14 pm IST--IANS