NEW DELHI, Aug 14 (IANS): Information and broadcasting ministry officials have cautioned TV channels not to create panic about the H1N1 influenza that is rapidly  spreading across India.

"We have conveyed our concerns to leading media organisations, including TV channels. We have no issue with creating awareness, but we have told them not to create panic about swine flu," an official of the information and broadcasting ministry said.

"There is no advisory as such. We have informally conveyed our message," the official said.

The officials of the ministry have conveyed to the News Broadcasting Association, an industry group of news channels, the need to observe restraint in reporting about swine flu.

Twenty people have died of swine flu in India so far, with the maximum number of 12 casualties reported from Pune in Maharastra. Earlier, the swine flu scare was confined to Pune after the first Indian victim of the disease last week.

There have been two deaths in Mumbai, and one each in Nashik, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Vadodara, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

The scare of an epidemic outbreak is spreading fast in India.

The constant updates on the spread of the disease on TV news channels have, in the views of the information and broadcasting ministry, aggravated the sense of panic.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently said the government may set up a war room to deal with the viral disease.