Officials call for calm as H1N1 flu hits India

MUMBAI: The arrival of H1N1 flu in India has caused panic in some areas, led to concern about the ability of the country's health system to cope and even disrupted Bollywood.

Public concern about the spread of the H1N1 virus has mounted since the death last Monday of a 14-year-old girl in the western city of Pune, some 120 kilometers from the country's financial capital Mumbai.

As of Tuesday evening, eight other people who were confirmed to have the virus have since died, four of them in Pune, while more than 1,000 people have tested positive, the health ministry said.