BENGALURU: Four more swine flu deaths were reported in the past one week from Kolar, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and Mysuru, taking the total death toll to seven in Karnataka.
Also, 618 people have tested positive for swine flu in the state.
A WHO official in the state said though there’s no definition of an epidemic that authorities use as a yardstick to go by, they tend to press the panic button only when the number of positive cases is higher than the sum total of the preceding three years or if fatalities are higher than the previous three years. Though the situation in the state has not reached that point, being cautious is desirable, health experts advise.
“In community medicine, generally, if there is a 10 per cent statistical increase in the number of cases, we can say it’s an onset of an epidemic. Even one death is a cause for concern. A public health warning, putting public health systems on high alert and having medical practitioners with a certain degree of suspicion is good when respiratory tract infections come. It’s good to inform the public about the number of cases there are and ask them to be cautious,” said Bobby Joseph, head of department of community medicine, St John’s Medical College.
“As per WHO guidelines we are supposed to test people for H1N1 only if they belong to Category-C, which means in-patients who haven’t been cured despite outpatient treatment. In Shivamogga, we are testing patients even if they have had fever for 72 hours. Typically, they don’t require a throat swab, but here we are taking one, so our reporting mechanism is robust,” Dr Rajesh Surgihalli, district health officer of Shivamogga said. The district has reported 42 cases and two deaths so far.
Mysuru has reported 59 cases and one death, the highest after BBMP and Bengaluru Urban districts. Dr B Basavaraju said that IEC (information-education-communication) activities are at a full-fledged scale in the district and that data has been relayed all over the district for the benefit of the public.
“Younger children, those suffering from diabetes, hypertension and those under dialysis are more susceptible. Those working in isolation wards have been provided masks and Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) tablets free of cost,” he said.