Three more swine flu patients succumbed in the state on Friday, taking the toll in the current year to 14, even as the number of swine flu cases crossed 500. The state health department said that two swine flu patients, or seasonal flu patients as it calls them, died in Ahmedabad city, and one in Banaskantha, on Friday. With this, the total number of swine flu deaths reported in the state since January 1 rose to 14. The health department said that 37 new cases of swine flu were reported in a single day today. Of these as many as 17 cases were in Ahmedabad city alone, and one in Ahmedabad rural. Five cases were reported in Kutch, three in Rajkot, and two cases each in Rajkot city and Banaskantha. One case of swine flu was reported from Gandhinagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Surat, Surendranagar, and Anand, it said. The number of swine flu cases in the state in the current year touched 509 because of the spurt in cases in the last three days. As of January 22, the number of swine flu cases was 397, while the number of deaths was eight. This means swine flu has claimed six more lives in the last three days. The authorities did not provide the break-up of the swine flu cases, but Ahmedabad has reported the highest number of cases so far. Data released by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) of the union health ministry earlier this week showed that Gujarat had reported the second highest number of swine flu cases between January 1 and 13 after Rajasthan. NO RESPITE

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