At a city hospital during the 2015 swine flu outbreak. Archive photo
Five people have died and more than 100 have been tested positive for the H1N1 swine flu virus in Uttar Pradesh in the last five days, mostly from Lucknow. Sardana BJP MLA Sangeet Som too was diagnosed with the flu on Friday.
According to Dr. Padmakar Singh, Director General (DG), Medical and Health, the state has seen 10 deaths and around 190 confirmed cases of swine flu so far this year. “In these five days, we have witnessed an increase in the number and we are taking precautionary measures to stop it from further increase,” Singh said, adding that five deaths were reported from Lucknow. While two of the dead are from Lucknow, the others are from different districts but treated in hospitals here.
“Som was detected swine flu positive in test yesterday. Presently, he is admitted at the Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad and his condition is stable,” said Rajkumar, Chief Medical Officer, Meerut. On Saturday, State Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh held a meeting over preparations in government hospitals to provide better treatment to swine flu patients and prevent its spread. The meeting was attended by Minister of State for health, Ashutosh Tandon and officials from WHO along with doctors from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute (SGPGI) of Medical Sciences and King George Medical University (KGMU).
“In the meeting, the need of prevention was repeated as prevention is the only way to stop swine flu. We were told to spread awareness among people that in case of any flu symptoms like coughing, cold or fever, the patient should immediately be isolated and should be given a lot of water,” said Padmakar Singh. “The WHO officials, however, informed that though the virus this year is spreading fast, it is not as powerful as earlier,” he added, mentioning that as per the state guidelines, in case of minor symptoms which is the first stage, only isolating the patient is important and there is no need for a test.
“In the second stage, the patient should be given ‘Tamiflu’ and still there is no need for the test. Only in the third stage we should go for swine flu test,” Singh said. He claimed, though we are witnessing a significant increase in swine flu cases within the state, the number is still low in comparison to other states in the country.
