BHUBANESWAR: Five cases of H1N1 were detected in Bhubaneswar in the last 48 hours even before the Health and Family Welfare Department could put in place measures to check outbreak of the seasonal flu.
All the five patients, aged between 42 and 79 years, have been admitted to private hospitals in the city. Out of the five, four are women. Two of them are from Bhubaneswar while the rest are from Kalahandi, Jagatsinghpur and Balangir.
The patients were admitted in the hospitals after July 25. The blood samples were sent to Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) which found them positive for H1N1. Hospital sources said none of the patients has had a travel history.
The H1N1 outbreak is reported after the monsoon as the season is conducive for the virus to spread.
According to Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, at least 600 people have died of H1N1 in the first six months of the year across the country. Maharashtra has bore the brunt of the outbreak with at least 284 deaths till July second week.
This year has seen a two-fold rise in deaths as compared to last year with Maharashtra accounting for most of the casualties, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha recently. Last year, as many as 265 swine flu deaths were recorded.
This time, Gujarat has reported 75 deaths out of 289 cases, while 1,127 people tested positive for H1N1 and 63 succumbed to it in Kerala. In Rajasthan, 59 persons died out of 407 reported cases. Karnataka has recorded 15 deaths whereas Telangana and Tamil Nadu registered 17 and 15 deaths. The country has registered 12,460 swine-flu cases so far this year as compared to 1,786 cases reported last year.
The Centre has put Oseltamivir in schedule H1 to ensure easy availability and accessibility of the drug so that it can be sold by all licensed chemists against prescription. In 2015, a whopping 42,592 cases were reported and 2,990 deaths were registered.