Two more GBS deaths take Maha toll to 11, India count 14

Nagpur: Two more persons died of GBS in Maharashtra on Friday, taking the state toll since Jan to 11 and the country's fatality count to 14. Assam, Tamil Nadu and Bengal had reported one death each earlier.

On Friday, Nagpur and Kolhapur reported their first GBS fatalities. While a man, 45, from Pardi in Nagpur succumbed to the rare neurological infection, in Kolhapur's Chandgad, a woman, 60, died due to complications caused by GBS, health officials said.

Maharashtra health minister Prakash Abitkar, who was in Kolhapur Friday, said his department has "successfully contained" GBS cases in state, "limiting the number to below 200 since its outbreak in Pune on Jan 9". Abitkar added that patients with co-morbidities "have poor immunity and are more likely to succumb to the syndrome..."