After the first death by swine flu in the district health department here is on alert mode. There is no VTM test kit in the hospital. Here the disease is estimated based on the test report by doing blood sampling.
A 55-year-old man from the district succumbed to swine flu at Galaxy Hospital, Varanasi Uttar Pradesh. The deceased was a resident of Sundi village under Kharaundhi police station area who had tested positive for H1N1 virus at a private hospital in Varanasi where he was shifted from Garhwa Sadar hospital where he passed away on Thursday.
The Surveillance Officer of Varanasi hospital informed the Garhwa Civil Surgeon(CS) about the swine flu patient.
The person who died of swine flu used to do farming in his village. On August 8, he got treatment from a doctor in the village when he had a fever and cough. But when he did not get better, he was treated in a private clinic in Kharaundhi on August 9. Still there was no improvement. After this, on the night of August 10, he was admitted in a critical condition in the sub-divisional hospital located in Sribanshidhar Nagar.
But from there, at 1:20 in the night of August 10, when the condition of the patient did not improve, he was referred to Sadar Hospital. He was brought to Sadar Hospital at night. There, RBSK doctor Dr. JP Thakur, who was present in the emergency duty, admitted him. On August 11, the said patient was treated in Sadar Hospital the whole day. But assessing no improvement in the condition of the patient, his relatives took him to a private hospital located in the Garhwa town. Where the patient's condition did not improve from there also, he was taken to Galaxy Hospital in Varanasi. During the investigation there, H1N1 influenza was confirmed. Later the private hospital management informed the Garhwa Civil Surgeon on August 15 about the disease.
As soon as the news of the patient having swine flu was received, the health department immediately isolated the doctor treating the patient.The health department has isolated his family members and started contact tracing for his concerned people.The health department team is keeping an eye on the entire matter. Information is also being collected about the medical staff treating the patient, Garhwa Civil Surgeon Dr. Ashok Kumar informed and said that the H1N1 flu, sometimes called swine flu, is a type of influenza A virus. Swine flu is a human respiratory infection caused by an influenza strain that started in pigs adding I doubt he had swine flu as there is no history of anything that could cause swine flu.
Swine flu is a pandemic which spreads rapidly from one human to another. It has been 10 days but no other person has been found to have this disease which suggests that the patient did not have swine flu but could have influenza as well.I have asked for the full report from the hospital in Varanasi where he was being treated. Only after the report arrives can I confirm the swine flu.
On a question CS said there is no arrangement for Swine Flu testing here. It has been said that the kits will be made available by Tuesday. If it is available, we will test it here. Currently, we are getting blood sampling done of concerned people.
