4-fold jump in swine flu cases in a month

Delhi hospitals have treated 1,088 cases of swine flu so far this year, of which 889 patients were residents of Delhi, health minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday. There have also been four deaths in Delhi hospitals, of which two were of Delhi residents.

If the data provided by the minister includes cases recorded on Thursday as well, it means 160 cases of swine flu were treated by Delhi hospitals in just four days.

A total of 928 cases of swine flu, including patients who came from other states to Delhi for treatment, were recorded by the national surveillance body – Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) – till August 6.

If reports are to be believed then there has been a sudden rise in the number of swine flu cases in the city. The previous IDSP — report till July 9 — showed that Delhi had reported only 241 swine flu cases.

“The sudden spike in the figures could be due to two reasons – rise in actual number of cases and registration of old cases. Swine flu cases usually go up after the monsoon showers because of a temperature change,” said AK Dhariwal, director of National Centre for Disease Control.

A total of 16,565 cases and 818 deaths due to swine flu have been recorded in the entire country till August 6, 2017, according to the IDSP report. Maharashtra is the worst hit with 3,750 cases and 381 deaths.

Jain, however, assured that there was no shortage of medicines or beds for treatment of patients.

“Six private and 19 government hospitals in Delhi are currently authorised to treat swine flu patients and they have plenty of stock of medicines. The government will soon allow other private hospitals with proper ventilator facilities to treat swine flu patients through a notification,” said Satyendar Jain.

The minister also advised that people must not panic and pressurise doctors to prescribe medicines or to admit them.

“Doctors usually divide people with swine flu into three categories. In Category A, patients just get the normal flu and recover on their own at home and do not require medicines or admission. Category B includes people who are at risk like children, elderly, pregnant women, people on steroids and others with low immunity,” Jain said.

“Category C includes people who have severe symptoms – breathlessness, drowsiness, high fever, chest pain, sudden drop in blood pressure – may require testing and admission,” he said.