Decline in cases with flu-like symptoms
GHAZIABAD: The cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) have started witnessing a decline in the current month after such cases peaked in April this year, according to data of the district health department. Health officials said that the decline in ILI and SARI cases is a good sign as about 15-20% of such cases turn out positive for Covid-19.
According to the health department data, there were about 41 cases of ILI/SARI in Ghaziabad in February which increased to 106 in March and further spiked to 3,249 in April when Covid-19 caseload was high in the district. However, during the first 15 days of May, only 570 such cases have come in so far.
The ILI and SARI cases show Covid-19 symptoms like cough, cold, fever and respiratory issues and need to be tested and treated early to avoid any patient going into stages of aggravation.
The officials said that the decline in ILI/SARI cases is a result of door-to-door surveys, surveillance and testing taken up by the health department teams.
“We have 618 surveillance teams and 20 static centres where testing takes place to detect suspected cases. About 15-20% of both ILI and SARI cases generally turn into positive for Covid-19. So, early detection of ILI/SARI cases helps contain the spread of virus,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.
In September last year, of 6,093 Covid-19 cases in Ghaziabad, 2,531 patients had shown symptoms of ILI/SARI, showed the data. The figure was 1,319 of 4,174 Covid cases in October, while it was 1,089 of 4,198 Covid cases in November and 315 of total 1,238 Covid cases in December last year.
“So, their (ILI/SARI cases) early testing and treatment is a must. We have also intensified surveillance and door-to-door surveys in rural areas to detect and test such cases. In urban areas, localities like Indirapuram, Vaishali, Vasundhara, Sahibabad and Raj Nagar have high number of ILI/SARI cases. The trend is, however, on a decline,” Gupta said.
Experts said that they have also witnessed a decline in ILI/ SARI cases in May.
“About 80% cases coming in around mid-april were having ILI/SARI symptoms. We have observed that the rate of such
patients coming in has declined to about 50-60% during past one week, and it is encouraging,” said Dr VB Jindal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad).
“It is vital that anyone having ILI/SARI symptoms should get tested at the onset and isolate self, besides starting with treatment,” he added.
Ghaziabad has witnessed a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases after April 15 this year. On April 15, the sample positivity rate was low at 2.8%, but it shot up to 8.84% on April 30 and further spiked to 19.3% on May 6. The official records indicated that it was 14.55% on May 15.
Sample positivity rate refers to the number of samples testing positive per 100 samples tested. Sometimes patients take more than one test for confirmation and so, total positive samples can be higher than total positive cases, the officials said.