New Delhi: Swine flu has claimed the lives of 15 more persons in the last two days as the death toll climbed to 2,123 while the number of affected persons in the country inched towards the 35,000 mark.
Data collated by the Union Health Ministry till yesterday said that 2,123 persons had perished due to the contagious disease while 34,636 people have been affected by it across various states.
Meanwhile a research today revealed that about 65 per cent of persons who died due to swine flu at the SMS Hospital and College in Jaipur in January and February, also had a "high risk factor" involved and they all suffered from other chronic diseases including diabetes, TB, chronic lung disorder.
The research paper titled "Profiling the Mortality due to Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Jaipur during the Current Season - January & February 2015" has been published by a team of doctors led by Dr Rama Sharma, Professor of Medicine, SMS Hospital and College, in the Journal of Association of Physicians of India (April issue).
Meanwhile the ministry said that the toll has increased to 436 in Gujarat, the state worst-hit by swine flu, while a total of 6,544 persons have been affected by the disease since January.
The number of deaths due to the virus in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh was 426, 431 and 309, while that of those affected was 6,642, 4,749 and 2,233 respectively.
In Karnataka, swine flu has killed 85 people and affected 2,866, while it has taken the lives of 77 in Telangana, 56 in Punjab, 53 in Haryana, 38 in Uttar Pradesh, 26 in West Bengal, 23 in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, 20 in Jammu and Kashmir, 14 in Kerala and 12 in Uttarakhand.
Twelve people have also died of the disease in Delhi which has seen 4,249 cases this year.
