Four more persons, including two from Rajasthan, died due to swine flu, with the death toll touching 600 even as 252 fresh cases were reported from across the country on Thursday, the Health Ministry said. Out of the 252 fresh cases, Delhi reported the maximum number of 125 cases followed by Haryana (34) and Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (21 each). With this, the total number of cases has now touched 18,872.

Children and adolescents with certain medical conditions are at a higher risk of having complications from H1N1 flu. All children under the age of 2 years are also at a higher risk for flu complications. A flu complication is a severe illness, like pneumonia, that can lead to hospitalisation or death in severe cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC has issued a list of medical conditions that are linked to higher risk for complications from swine flu. These medical conditions are listed below:

* Respiratory conditions, asthma in particular
* Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions including disorders of the brain; spinal cord; peripheral nerve; and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy (seizure disorders), stroke, intellectual disability (mental retardation), moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury
* Chronic lung disease (such as cystic fibrosis)
* Heart disease (such as congenital heart disease and congestive heart failure)
* Blood disorders (such as sickle cell disease)
* Endocrine disorders (such as diabetes mellitus)
* Kidney disorders
* Liver disorders
* Metabolic disorders (such as inherited metabolic disorders and mitochondrial disorders)
* Weakened immune system due to disease or medication (such as people with HIV or AIDS, cancer, or those on chronic steroids)
* Receiving long-term aspirin therapy for chronic disorders
* Pregnancy
* Children under the age of 2 years

Drugs play a vital role in the prevention and treatment of most diseases. They should be taken only on prescription by a registered medical practitioner. By and large, all drugs are potent weapons with a double edge: judicious and appropriate use can give relief, reckless “self-prescription” can be dangerous. Therefore, medicines should only be taken as directed by the doctor. According to government rules, manufacturers and drug stores are obliged to give a product information leaflet with the purchase of every medicine. In practice, this not being done. Therefore, most people are not aware of essential information on the drugs that they consume. In order to help such people we are developing a database on drugs being sold in India that provides important information that is the name of the medicine, the name(s) of various brands under which the medicine is being marketed, the use(s) of the medicine, side-effects which might occur, situations when the drug can be used but with utmost care, and situations when the drug must not be used. We have already listed nearly all single ingredient medicines. Now, we are in the process of adding multi-ingredient drug combinations that contain more than one medicine. We hope you will find this section useful.