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ShareBangalore: If you were feeling relieved over the receding number of cases of H1N1 flu over the past one month, here is some bad news. This extremely contagious virus is back in action and seems to be already creating a havoc in the city.
Nine samples, all from Bangalore, have tested positive for H1N1 virus on Wednesday. And, 35 students from a city nursing college have approached the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) during the day with symptoms of H1N1.
Reports confirmed that one of the students of Oxford Nursing College was indeed infected by the H1N1 virus. This created a sense of panic among his college mates, and the students who were staying in the same hostel as him and suffering from flu-like symptoms, rushed to the hospital for the swab test.
After screening all the students, four samples were finally collected. Twenty-three students, showing symptoms of the flu, were administered Tamiflu.
Besides, 11 others with flu-like symptoms also approached the RGICD during the day. Three of these 11 individuals were given Tamiflu and their swab strainstaken. "The reports are expected on Thursday evening. It they test positive, it could mean that the H1N1 virus is on a comeback trail," said Dr Shashidhar Buggi, director, RGICD.
Sources from Nimhans said that the institute is getting around 20 to 25 throat swab samples every day, of which around 20% test positive.
Two deaths were also reported due to the virus last week, takingKarnataka's death toll due to the pandemic to 120. The two latest victims were women aged 41 and 34 years, respectively.
Meanwhile, Narayana Nethralaya, which launched the first private laboratory in the city for testing H1N1 virus last month, is charging Rs 5,500 per test. The laboratory has tested around 50 samples from October 31 to November 24, of which 10 cases turned out to be positive. Thirty-threesamples tested negative, while seven were cases of seasonal flu.
"Thirty-nine samples came directly from Narayana Hrudayalaya, one from Gangotri Hospital, and seven more from Harsha Hospital and three were walk-in patients who were eager to undergo the test following symptoms," said Venkataramana A of Narayana Nethralaya.He said there had been a slight upswing in suspected and confirmed cases over the last one week.
"On Tuesday, we got eight suspected cases, more than double the number of cases we get daily, for H1N1 tests. Also, in the past one week, at least one sample is testing positive every day," the scientist said.
Approaching winter and the recent rains have led to the dipping of city's temperature which is considered to be a major reason for the sudden spurt in H1N1 cases in the city.
The second coming
Narayana Nethralaya has launched the first private laboratory in the city for testing H1N1 virus.
Despite charging a neat Rs5,500 for getting the swab test done, a large number of people have been visiting the hospital. People who'd rather pay up than going to government hospitals are approaching Nethralaya for swab test.
"It's just about a month since we have launched the service and in the last three weeks we are getting around three to four cases on an average every day. While we don't entertain patients directly and take samples from the hospitals, a few patients with cough and sore throat approached us directly for H1N1 testing," said Dr Bhujang Shetty, director, Narayana Nethralaya.
City hospitals are also getting a large number of cases of respiratory infection. "Around 60% of the patients in our outpatient department are down with respiratory infections. We have around six children admitted in our ICU for same," said Dr H Paramesh, director, Lakeside Hospital and Medical Centre.
Pandemic update
Nine confirmed cases of swine flu were reported in the city on Wednesday, taking the total number of people affected by H1N1 influenza to 1,525 in Karnataka, health officialssaid. Throat culture samples of 6,995 suspect H1N1 cases have been analysed so far,
the officials said. As on date, 6,20,735 passengers have been screened for the
pandemic at the Bangalore and Mangalore airports.
