New Delhi, Aug 4 - The health ministry will issue new guidelines to private hospitals on handling swine flu patients, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Tuesday, a day after India's first death from the influenza A (H1N1) virus in Pune.

The 14-year-old who died in Pune Monday after she was admitted to a private hospital got the correct treatment 'too late', Azad told a television channel.

The ministry, which had been mulling the issue, would come up with new health guidelines for private hospitals Tuesday, he said.

'It is a deterrent when a person develops symptoms of flu it is compulsory that he be hospitalised and isolated. Most people don't like that. We have had talks with experts and doctors and are going to issue new guidelines today which say that it is not necessary to isolate a person at the first instance.

'There should be tests conducted and if the person tests positive for H1N1 virus then it can be decided if he needs to be hospitalised or put under medication.'

'This will be a relief to people,' he added.

The new guidelines will also allow certain private hospitals to collect samples from suspected H1N1 virus patients and send them for laboratory tests.

'No private or government hospital has a laboratory where the sample of the virus can be tested.