Mumbai
Number of patients rises to 11; health officials surprised by spurt, but say no cause for alarm.
Updated : Mar 14, 2012, 11:42 AM IST
Seven more cases of swine flu were reported to health authorities, taking the number of H1N1 positive patients to a total of 11 cases from March 5.
Of these 11 patients, three are on ventilator support after slipping into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to H1N1 virus. These are a 55-year-old autorickshaw driver at Bharati Hospital, a 30-year-old woman at Aditya Birla Hospital and a 55-year-old woman at Thergaon’s Global Hospital.
All these patients have been started on Tamiflu and antibiotics, said health authorities.
While health officials say that H1N1 cases do get reported and there is nothing to get alarmed, 11 cases getting reported after no cases for many months has surprised health officials.
“Usually swine flu cases are lesser when the temperature starts rising. However at the moment, we are seeing fluctuations in day and night temperature. More cases of common flu are getting reported and since H1N1 virus is part of the virus climate, people are getting the infection as well,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.
He said, “The National Institute of Virology (NIV) is doing a project in some slums to study viral load on population and that’s why they collected samples. The people may have mild symptoms. But since they tested positive, those cases are adding to the rising number,” said Awate.
The number of cases getting reported within a week has surprised health officials since H1N1 viral infections had abated for many months with the last positive case being reported in October.
However, Pune has continued to be the epicentre of the viral infection, show statistics. In 2011, there were 31 swine flu positive cases with 21 cases from Pune alone.
“While people have developed herd immunity as most of the population is exposed to the virus, the maximum cases were reported from Pune at the peak of pandemic. That’s why the maximum numbers would continue to get reported there as the H1N1 virus is present like all other viruses,” said Awate.
So far the areas from where H1N1 patients were reported are Kothrud, Loni, Thergaon, Katraj, Bhosari, Pune Cantonment, Kharadi and Nigdi.