Six fresh cases of swine flu reported in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Six fresh cases of swine flu were reported in the national capital today even as Delhi government has geared up to prevent the spread of the virus.

"Also we have started sending all the samples to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to reconfirm that the cases reported are swine flu cases," said R N Das, a member of the five-member team constituted by Health department to review swine flu cases.

Yesterday, Health department had nominated 11 District Surveillance Officers (DSOs) to check whether standard operating procedures for treatment of HINI cases are being followed by hospitals.

Government is also in the process of adding four more laboratories, two each in private and government sectors to the existing eight laboratories (five private and three government), where one can get themselves tested for H1N1.

Capital in total has recorded 78 cases so far this year, said Das.

Also, according to the five-member committee, the H1NI virus till now has "claimed not four but three lives with one of the deceased's samples having tested negative for the virus by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)".

"The committee recently reviewed the four swine flu deaths in the city and found that one death was not due to swine flu. The victim had tested positive for H1N1 from a private lab, but his reports from NCDC were negative," said Das.

Das also said that out of the three deaths, one of the victims had influenza B while the other had H3N2, along with HIN1.

"Swine influenza A (H1N1) virus spreads in the same way as the seasonal flu and even the symptoms are similar to the symptoms of regular flu which includes fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, vomiting and fatigue...," said a Health Ministry official.

"However, it can be serious for elderly or children with low immunity or people who have health complications like heart diseases, cancer, HIV, diabetes or pregnant women, elderly or children with low immunity.

"Infected people can pass the infection to others a day before symptoms develop and up to seven or more days after becoming sick," said a health expert.