Raipur, Aug 20 - Chhattisgarh recorded its first swine flu death Thursday after health officials confirmed the sample of a para-military trooper who died last week had tested positive for the virus.

'Y.S. Rao, 40, a constable with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who succumbed to high fever, cough and cold Aug 14 was suffering from swine flu as his blood sample, received Thursday, tested positive,' Dr. S.M.M Murthy, the state's deputy director (health services), told IANS.

The CRPF trooper who had recently returned from Maharashtra, died at Bilaspur-based Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Science (CIMS) and his blood sample was sent hours before his death for swine flu test to Delhi-based National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) (earlier the National Institute of Communicable Diseases).

Murthy said they had examined several colleagues of the deceased CRPF trooper Thursday in Bilaspur in the wake of Rao's report but none of them was displaying any swine flu symptoms.

The Chhattisgarh government has deployed doctors at Raipur airport and at railway stations across the state to examine passengers coming in from other states, particularly from Maharashtra and Delhi.