Jaipur becomes swine flu capital of country with 578 cases in ’18 so far

JAIPUR: Pink City does not seem to be in the pink of health. Data shows that more than half of the swine flu cases reported from across states in the country are from Jaipur.
According to Centre’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme report released on February 11, Rajasthan reported 871 cases, the highest in the country; of them 578 from Jaipur alone.

According to the report, 1,022 persons have tested positive for swine flu in the country this year so far.Jammu and Kashmir stands a poor second in the list with 27 cases. Gujarat has 16 cases, Madhya Pradesh 7 (with two deaths), Haryana 13 (with two deaths), Delhi 19 (one death) and Uttar Pradesh 10 cases (one death).
Recently, Union health minister J P Nadda had said in the Lok Sabha, “Existing surveillance system is capable of detecting early warning signals following which steps/remedies can be taken at the community level so that major outbreaks could be prevented.” He specifically said that Rajasthan was the only state in 2018 which was badly affected by swine flu.
‘Centre sent swine flu alert to Raj to take preventive steps’
Nadda said, “After detecting early warning signals, the Centre had deputed teams in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Telangana in 2017 and Rajasthan in 2018.”
Nadda specifically said that Rajasthan was the only state in 2018 which was badly affected by swine flu. The Centre had sent an alert to the state to take preventive measures. People are not immune to the new strain of swine flu virus in the state.
Nadda had pointed out, “As per the studies done at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09, A/Michigan/45/2015 like viruses have been detected in India since February 2016 when they co-circulated with A/California/07/2009 (25%). Since April 2017, all viruses detected have been A/Michigan/45/2015.”
State health minister Kalicharan Saraf said that they have issued instructions to all chief medical health officers to prevent the spread of swine flu by conducting screening of persons who were in contact with the patients. Besides, health department officials have been asked to conduct sudden inspections at houses and neighbouring areas of swine flu patients.
In the state, 3,619 had tested positive for swine flu in 2017, out of which 280 had died. This year till Wednesday, 67 have reportedly died due to the deadly disease.
Two persons died of swine flu and 13 tested positive on Wednesday. Besides, two deaths were reported from Jaipur and Jodhpur. Jaipur and Jodhpur have reported highest number of swine flu deaths at 22 and 15 respectively this year.