Nagpur: 16 swine flu cases this month, more than total of last 2 years

NAGPUR: H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu, cases have jumped to 20 in Nagpur, with 16 patients detected this month itself. Till June 30, the swine flu case tally was 5, including three patients detected in May and two of them belonging to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
The spurt in the last three weeks has sent alarm bells ringing among district and civic health authorities as the season of influenza is at its peak. The authorities have already put all influenza-like illness (ILIs) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) patients on surveillance at three medical colleges — AIIMS Nagpur, GMCH, and IGGMCH — and two private hospitals as part of a study of the current spike.
Though as per official record no H1N1 death has been reported, officials confirmed that a couple of suspected deaths are under study. Compared to Sars Cov2, the fatality rate of H1N1 is over 15%. Covid death rate is around 2%. Treatment of swine flu too is a costly affair with patients generally requiring ventilator support.
The month’s tally so far is more than the total number of cases in 2020 and 2021 combined in the district. Last year, only 11 cases were recorded while eight cases were detected in 2020 when the Covid pandemic started. In fact, sum of past two years’ is less than the number of cases, 20, recorded in seven months of this year. The cases detected so far include two residents of Chandrapur, one from Chhindwara in MP and one from Nagpur rural. Rest are residents of Nagpur city.
Some of the swine flu patients were initially Covid suspects, but ultimately tested positive for H1N1, say officials, who have been aggressively tracing close contacts of confirmed patients. A couple of cases from this month were close contacts of patients. As per norms, only symptomatic close contacts have to be tested.
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has started creating awareness about swine flu spread on social medial. Health teams are also engaged in carrying out survey to trace SARI and ILI patients at homes.
Officials said proper and timely management can treat the disease. They said with festive season beginning from next month, citizens need to stay alert and avoid crowding to keep the deadly disease under control.