Swine flu on the rise in city

Seven cases confirmed in TS on Friday, taking the number since August to 165

Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy calling on patients at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad on Saturday.

With one more death and a confirmed case of infection in an infant, swine flu cases in Hyderabad are on a steady climb.

The four deaths, all women, this month were reported at the Gandhi Hospital. Two women were less than 40 years.

On Friday, a 68-year-old woman from Bahadurpura succumbed to the illness. She was brought to the hospital on January 16.

As the hospital has a dedicated swine flu ward, suspected and confirmed cases are being referred to it from across the city.

According to the government, around seven cases of swine flu infection were confirmed in Telangana on Friday, taking the total number since August to 165.

At the Gandhi Hospital, a 10-month old infant is now the only patient undergoing treatment for swine flu, after being referred from another private hospital late on Friday. Seeking to assure the public, Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy informed reporters at NIMS Hospital on Saturday that swine flu was not a concern and the State was adequately geared to fight the illness. One patient is undergoing treatment at NIMS for the illness.

The death of two women, aged under 40 with no apparent co-morbid conditions, indicate that the virus causes illness that necessarily does not follow a textbook pattern. Mohammed Razak, husband of Shaheen Begum, one of the women who succumbed to the virus last Sunday, said when his wife was first hospitalised, she did not have high fever, cough or respiratory distress, the classical symptoms of swine flu.

“She in fact took ill after availing treatment for skin pigmentation issues on her cheeks. Before her swine flu test results came positive when she was admitted at a private hospital, she did not have signs of respiratory infections,” he said.

The rise in infections due to the virus is being attributed to cold weather.

This month alone, the number of positive cases and deaths is higher than those witnessed last year at the Gandhi Hospital.

Doctors hope that it will not touch proportions of 2015, when 156 cases were reported in January involving 31 deaths at the hospital.