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Address delay in diagnosis of swine flu cases, BMC told

Most of the deaths due to this sickness are because of delay in diagnosing it

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Maharashtra has reported 2,053 swine flu cases till now
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The state government has asked civic health officials to address the issue of delay in diagnosis of swine flu patients. Most of the deaths have occurred in cases where patients went to several practitioners but remained undiagnosed, or their symptoms were wrongly identified till they developed severe swine flu-related complications.

“Behaviour of the public to seek care and oseltamivir (Tami Flu) initiation in time are the two things we need to focus on,” said state’s epidemiologist Dr Pradeep Awate.

“Mumbai civic health officials have been told that the time lag between the onset of the disease and initiation of oseltamivir is a thing of concern. Everyone should focus on that,” he added.

Mumbai has reported 313 new swine flu cases in June alone but according to Awate the spike in such cases in the city, as well as in the Konkan coast, is something that the state health officials had expected.

The civic body recently formed a ‘death committee’ that has experts from the city’s medical colleges and will probe each swine flu death. The committee was formed on the recommendation of a team of experts from the National Communicable Disease Centre (NCDC) that visited Mumbai, Thane and Pune in the last week of June.

So far, Mumbai has recorded 15 deaths, of which six patients were from outside the city. Maharashtra has reported 2,053 swine flu cases and 274 deaths till now.

...& ANALYSIS

  • Negligence or lack of proper diagnosis of swine flu invariably leads to death
     
  • Mumbai has reported 313 new swine flu cases in June alone
     
  • BMC formed a ‘death committee’ that has experts from the city’s medical colleges
     
  • So far, Mumbai has seen 15 deaths, of which six were from outside the city
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