Assuring people that the government is determined to control the spread of swine flu in the country, the government on Friday said within a couple of days it will review and decide on the open sale of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the drug used for treatment of the disease.
Here is an FAQ on the dreaded virus
Two men, including a doctor suffering from swine flu, have been admitted in a serious condition to a Pune hospital, taking the total number of cases in the city, one of the worst-hit by the virus, to 120.A doctor, who works with Inlaks Hospital in camp area, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Sassoon General Hospital after he tested positive for the virus. A 35-year-old swine flu patient was admitted to the same hospital on Thursday night in a critical condition.
Sir Mark Sykes, a Tory MP, soldier and diplomat, was one of 50 million people killed when Spanish flu swept the world in 1918. His body was exhumed last year in the hope that the Spanish virus could help them understand bird flu.
Two cases of swine flu were confirmed in New Delhi on Monday, bringing the total number of persons suffering from the viral ailment across the country to 11. While the first case in Delhi is that of a 35-year-old man who reached the capital from New York, the second case is that of his mother (60), who seems to have caught the infection from him in a case of human to human transmission of the disease. Hyderabad has reported seven cases so far.
According to latest WHO update, Mexico and the US have topped the list of 30 countries where laboratory-confirmed human cases of the virus have been reported. Mexico has 2,059 cases with 56 deaths while the US has 2600 with three deaths. Canada has 330 cases, including one death, while Costa Rica has eight cases, including one death.
A 23-year-old pregnant woman, who had tested positive for H1N1 virus, died at a state-run hospital in Mumbai, health officials said on Friday. "The woman, who had come from Dhule, died at the the JJ Hospital," BMC's health officer Dr Anil Bandiwdekar told PTI.
Swine flu claimed the lives of 33 more persons pushing the toll towards the 1900 mark, while the total number of persons affected by the H1N1 virus touched 32,000.
13 fresh swine flu cases have been reported in Maharashtra since Wednesday with Pune accounting for nine of them, health officials said on Thursday.
Government on Tuesday said an indigenous Indian vaccine for H1N1 would be ready by the beginning of April, even as it demanded an inquiry into the 'panic' created by international bodies on the scale of the epidemic.
Swine flu claimed the lives of 16 more people as the death toll across the country crossed the 1,900 mark on Sunday.
Swine flu has claimed 13 lives in Andhra Pradesh in the last 15 days, and a worried state government has assured people that the facility to treat the pandemic will be soon available in all government hospitals and the majority of private hospitals.A woman from Warangal district, who was undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, succumbed to the flu on Tuesday evening, taking the toll to 13."I am reviewing the situation the CM said.
One more person died of swine flu in Pune on Friday night, taking the death toll due to the viral infection in the city to 34, health officials said on Saturday. Sandeep Dayne, 35, died on Friday night at a private hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment since August 28. Meanwhile, six fresh cases of the viral infection have been detected in the city, which has been worst hit by the pandemic.
A seven-year-old girl died of swine flu in Pune on Tuesday, taking the toll due to the viral infection in the city to 32. Priyanka Shimilkar, who was admitted to the government-run Sassoon Hospital on August 29, had tested positive for the virus. Meanwhile, a meeting of Ganesh mandals convened by the district administration has decided to avoid the use of vermilion in the immersion procession of idols on September 3.
Even though state health minister on Monday ruled out outbreak of swine flu in Jammu and Kashmir, the state chief minister took stock of the preparedness to deal with the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation has announced that the first vaccines for the swine flu pandemic are likely to be ready for use by September this year. Many pharma companies in China, Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Germany have already made the first batches of the H1N1 vaccine and these are being clinically tested, reports the BBC.Pregnant women and young children are expected to be the first recipients of the vaccine.
As many as 30 people have succumbed to the deadly swine flu virus in the past two months across the state, while 99 others tested positive for the disease, health officials said on Tuesday.
The study noted that humans are not protected from the G4 virus by the immunity offered by other human influenza vaccine strains, indicating that there is no preexisting population immunity to the virus.
The Bollywood actress and her personal trainer have been infected with the H1N1 virus, reports Haresh Pandya from Rajkot.
After Pune, the swine flu scare is affecting footfalls and sales in malls and retail stores in Mumbai. Sales in these places have fallen by up to half in the past two days.
The throat swab of the 52-year-old non resident Indian, who died in a hospital in Kerala's Kollam district on July 1, was found to be negative for H1N1 flu, putting to rest fears that his death may have been due to swine flu. Deceased Stanley Pelis, who arrived in Kerala two weeks ago from the United Kingdom, had died of viral pneumonia, said director of Health Services Dr K Shyalaja.The patient, who hails from Kollam, was suffering from viral fever,she said.
The one-day cricket series between India and the West Indies has been put under "special swine flu surveillance" in view of the H1N1 virus spread in Kingston.
Despite a go-ahead from the Centre, the state government will not resort to culling of the pigs immediately and will adopt an alternate mechanism to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease, Assam Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora said at a press conference.
Swine flu claimed its sixth victim in Pune with the death of a patient in Sassoon hospital on Tuesaday. 35-year-old Sanjay Mistry, was in a critical condition since Monday and died today, Sassoon hospital sources said.
Rio Olympian and Indian long distance runner Sudha Singh, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital here for a suspected Zika virus infection, has tested positive for swine flu and will be out of action for at least two months, doctors said on Tuesday. "Sudha Singh who has been undergoing treatment for a suspected Zika virus is suffering from H1N1, known as swine flu virus," Dr Sarala of Sports Authority of India told PTI in Bengaluru.
With three more swine flu cases detected in Lucknow on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh's count of the dreaded virus has gone up to 15, indicating a clearly rising trend in India's most populous state.
With a surge in swine flu cases across the country, the government on Monday decided to allow private labs to conduct tests of suspected cases in accordance with the guidelines issued by it and stockpile another 2 crore tablets of Tamiflu to check spread of the disease.
The World Health Organisation on Thursday declared the swine flu outbreak was a pandemic, the first in more than 40 years.
The death toll in the current outbreak of swine flu in Andhra Pradesh has mounted to four while 23 cases have been registered across the state so far, Principal Secretary P V Ramesh told journalists in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Swine flu claimed four more lives, two of them in Chhattisgarh, taking the total number of casualties to 26, even as the government decided to issue new guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of suspected patients to calm fear among the people.
With three fresh samples testing positive, the number of swine flu cases in Uttar Pradesh has shot up to 19 on Thursday. "We had tested about 27 samples out of which 3 turned out to be positive," Dr T N Dhole, head of the Mircrobiology department at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences said.
Swine flu has claimed the lives of 34 more persons raising the toll to 875 across the country even as the number of affected people breached the 15,000 mark on Tuesday.
Swine flu scare in Pune on Monday forced the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to wind up its month-long training camp which was scheduled to get over on August 25. India's top shooters including Gagan Narang and Anjali Bhagwat were among the 100 participants in the camp at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune to prepare for next year's Commonwealth Games.
Google stated that it closed the office for two days as a precautionary measure and for sanitising all the common areas.
'All the judges were provided treatment as per the protocol. Prophylactic treatment was also given to all who have come in contact with them including their family members. 'All five judges were kept in home isolation. Of these, three judges have already resumed their duty and two continue to be under home isolation/observation and are recovering,' the ministry said in a statement.
Swine flu on Wednesday claimed five more lives, four of them in worst-hit Pune alone, taking the countrywide toll to 17 even as authorities in Mumbai shut down schools and colleges for a week and cinema halls for three days to check the spread of the virus.
A 26-year-old teacher became the first swine flu fatality in Bengaluru while an infant and two women died in worst-hit Pune on Thursday, taking the nationwide death toll to 21 even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said panic should not created and the government is doing its best.
The virus may have acquired mutations that make it more severe and infectious.
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are the worst-hit states.
Kerala has had 202 fatalities in 2024 so far. In July alone, there were 202,122 episodes of fever, 2,250 cases of dengue, 1,850 cases of mumps and several other illnesses. 10,000 cases of dengue have been reported from Karnataka. 1,000 swine flu cases have been documented in Rajasthan.
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