HYDERABAD: Worried over the incidence of swine flu in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, doubts clouded the minds of doctors about the strain of the virus. ‘Did the virus mutate?’ was a question that troubled doctors treating the flu patients.
Allaying such fears, Dr K Amarender Reddy, director, Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM), Narayanguda, said that there is no change in the strain of H1N1 virus.
He said that samples were sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to test if there was any change in the virus. ‘’A week ago NCDC said that there is no change in the strain of the virus,” Amarender said.
At a seminar on H1N1, organised by the Telangana Commissionerate of Family Welfare, IPM, and Indian Academy of Vaccinology here on Tuesday, he spoke about H1N1 diagnosis and prevention.
Recalling the kind of H1N1 cases that were diagnosed in the past few months, he said infants as young as three to four months were detected with the infection.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr P Dhairyanwan, superintendent, Gandhi Hospital, said that about 95 per cent of the flu cases that they received were patients shifted from other hospitals. “For every confirmed case, there are 20 undetected cases”, said Dr Dhairyawan, quoting a study.