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देश में स्वाइन फ्लू से अब तक 600 की मौत

NEW DELHI: The mercury rising, yet the H1N1 influenza A virus seems to defy its survival limitations, worrying the health ministry and doctors.This year, swine flu deaths have more than doubled compared to the previous year taking the toll to 624. A total of 9,311 people got infected, government data show. In February alone over 300 died across the country. In 2014, 218 swine flu deaths were reported from a total of 937 cases, pan-India."As it starts getting warmer, we expected cases to come down. This year the trend is different," says Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.Union health minister JP Nadda has held frequent review meetings. The ministry's directed pharma companies to expedite supply of antiviral medicines to state hospitals and licensed retail outlets. "We've asked companies to airlift stocks, if required. We'll monitor availability in the retail market," Union health secretary BP Sharma said. The government hopes cases will come down with awareness and precautionary measures, he said. The ministry has directed states to provide protective kits to health workers.Although the cause is yet to be ascertained, doctors suspect a change in the strain behaviour — which generally happens in three to four years — resulting in the sudden spurt in cases. ICMR, though, has ruled out strain mutation, BP Sharma, secretary to the health ministry said.Doctors recommend isolation of patients. They cautioned that only those with moderate to acute symptoms should go to hospitals for tests and treatment. "Patients with milder symptoms should stay home, take antiviral medicines and precautions," says Dr KK Aggarwal, leading cardiologist.Patients with breathlessness, high fever for three to four days or those already suffering from complex diseases and are immuno-compromised should go for hospitalization, according to Dr Aggarwal. Experts said the government should formulate a treatment protocol so there's no unnecessary testing and hospitalization. Last week, retail medicine shortages were reported from states, including Maharashtra and Delhi.Sharma maintains it's important to ensure needless prescription doesn't lead to the virus turning resistant to the drug. Doctors, nonetheless, suggest patients displaying severe symptoms start taking the antiviral medicine. "Once the disease develops, the medicine's efficiency starts going down," said Dr Arup Basu of Ganga Ram Hospital.Asthmatics are more vulnerable to swine flu. Nearly 30% of those hospitalized for the flu are asthma patients, a research says. "Swine flu and asthma attack the airways.Having both makes people vulnerable to respiratory complications, including pneumonia, says Dr Vivek Nangia, director and head of pulmonology at Fortis. India has 30 million asthmatics, about 10% of the 300 million worldwide.Experts say though noninvasive ventilation can be effective for such patients, it's limited to 10% because of poor awareness. "By the time the patient is prescribed noninvasive ventilation in home care, lungs have irretrievably damaged," says Dr Nangia.