BENGALURU: While there has been a general increase in the number of H1N1 cases in the city and also across the state, what had perplexed the health authorities is that Mahadevapura zone, which houses the IT corridor, had witnessed the highest number of cases. It now turns out that the reasons could be IT professionals returning from work-related trips bringing the infection and also due to population density and vehicular pollution.
Until October 13, out of the 171 confirmed cases detected within the city, 52 were detected in Mahadevapura zone by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s Public Health Information and Epidemiological Cell. This accounts for 30.41% of the cases.
Dr T R Hemkumar, consultant physician at Sakra Hospital in Marathahalli, said in the last fortnight, over 20 cases had been detected at the hospital itself. He said respiratory diseases were generally more prevalent in the region due to increased construction activity and vehicular pollution. “Another reason could be the huge floating population found here. IT professionals have to travel a lot, including to international locations, for their work. It is possible they could have brought in the infections,” he said.
Dr S Manohar, head of Internal Medicine at Sakra Hospital, said cases of H1N1 had increased during the past week. He attributed the high number of cases in the area to the high density of population in the region, owing to more apartments being present. “With the huge number of apartments, the spread of a communicable disease is also more likely. Also, most IT offices have air-conditioning, which is conducive for the spread of air-borne diseases,” he said.
State Health Department’s Dr Sajjan Shetty, Joint Director of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, said the issue of increased cases in Mahadevapura had been discussed during Sunday’s meeting of health and BBMP officials with Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara.In the meeting, BBMP officials claimed that several residents of Mahadevapura could have become carriers when they travelled to Maharashtra, which has also seen a spurt of H1N1 cases, Dr Shetty said.