Nearly half of the reported swine flu deaths in Mumbai took medical help after the sixth days of onset of the disease, shows an internal death audit done by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. So far, the virus has taken 42 lives out of which, only 15 are from Mumbai.
Nearly half of the reported swine flu deaths in Mumbai took medical help after the sixth days of onset of the disease, shows an internal death audit done by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. So far, the virus has taken 42 lives out of which, only 15 are from Mumbai.
To understand the reasons behind H1N1 mortality, the BMC had set up an internal committee which regularly sits to analyse the course of treatment and reasons behind swine flu deaths in the city.
"Our committee had analysed 27 swine flu deaths and found that in 12 patients, the time lag between onset of infection and hospital admission was 6 days. Similarly, the time lag between onset of infection and treatment was also 5 days," said Dr Mangala Gomare, epidemiology cell in-charge in BMC. She added that it is very important to diagnose the disease at the earliest and take medical help.
Since January 2015, the city has seen 1,562 swine flu positive cases. The virus has killed 3813 people in Maharashtra. The BMC's swine flu death analysis showed that out of 27 patients, 17 died within four days of their admission in hospital.
"During our analysis, we found that apart from the delay in taking medical help, a majority of them had secondary illness. At least seven people had diabetes and seven had hypertension. Other ailments like chronic kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were also seen," said Dr Gomare.
At present, 44 swine flu patients are taking treatment in different city hospitals. Dr Gomare said that seeing how co-morbid/secondary illness played a major role in mortality in swine flu cases, it has become important to spread awareness on the same. "People with secondary ailments need to be more vigilant, alert when it comes to diseases like H1N1. Survival rate improves if the treatment is started on time and there is no delay in diagnosis," said Dr Gomare.
Out of the 27 cases analysed, the committee also found that 9 people who succumbed to H1N1 death didn't have any secondary illness. According to state health officials, this season, they have found 35% people who have died of swine flu although they didn't have any secondary high-risk ailments. "35% Siwn flu deaths in the state had no co-morbid conditions. According to studies done by ICMR and National Institute of Virology, hyperactive immuno system is the reason for such deaths. Swine flu infections are otherwise very mild and most people don't even require hospitalisation," said Dr Pradip Awate, state's epidemeology cell in-charge.
BMC is presently seeing a drastic drop in swine flu cases. "Two weeks back, we used to see 70-80 H1N1 positive cases every day but now that has come down to 7-8 on an average in a day," said Dr Gomare.
Virus claims two more
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) health report recorded two swine flu deaths in the city on Tuesday. "The deceased were a 65-year-old man from Mulund and a 64-year-old woman from Andheri. While the Mulund resident was admitted in Fortis hospital on March 27, the Andheri resident was admitted in the BSES hospital," said Dr Mangala Gomare. The swine flu deaths toll in the city is now 44. "The Mulund resident had hypertension and the Andheri resident had both diabetes and hypertension. They died of acute respiratory distress syndrome," added Dr Gomare. On Monday, 12 Mumbaikars tested positive for the virus out of which 8 are in hospital.
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