Raj, Delhi lead India’s swine flu surge
NEW DELHI: Swine flu (H1N1) cases are projected to cross 10,000 this week, with 2,666 new cases in just one week ending February 10, taking India’s H1N1 count to 9,367 in the first 40 days of 2019. There have been 312 deaths.
While this year has registered a sharp spike in cases in February as compared to all of 2018, when there were 14,992 recorded cases and 1,103 deaths, the virus has not turned any more deadly than it was last year.
Rajasthan has recorded the maximum numbers of cases in the country with 2,941 people testing positive for swine flu. Out of these, 107 have died as of February 10. In the same time period, the number of cases in Delhi touched 1,669 while seven deaths were reported.
Yet, so huge is the panic that isolation and fever wards in all Delhi hospitals, both public and private, are overflowing, with everyone testing positive for H1N1 insisting on being admitted and treated.
Isolation wards and treating everyone with H1N1 with anti-virals like Tamiflu are not needed, say leading pulmonary medicine experts and virologists who recommend India must shift from a pandemic response to a programme approach to contain annual seasonal flu infections that hit 5-10% of the adult population each year.
The H1N1 virus has transitioned from a pandemic strain to a seasonal flu strain that poses no additional risk of complications and death than the other three circulating flu viruses. “We don’t need isolation wards, everyone with H1N1 doesn’t need to be tested and treated. It is no longer a novel pandemic virus that people had no immunity against in 2009-10. Most of us by now have been infected with H1N1, developed mild fever and recovered without being tested or treated,” s ai d Dr Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“I just had a patient with H1N1 insisting on getting admitted to hospital, even after I told he didn’t need treatment and should just go home,” he said. Cases Till February 3 Feb 3 Feb 10 Feb 3 Feb 10 Feb 3 Feb 10 Deaths Till February 10