The unseasonal swine flu has made a firm grip on the provisional state capital. Death of three more patients has taken the death toll to 19 in this season. The death of these three patients had occurred on August 30 and 31 but as usual their samples from National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) arrived late. Out of these three two are females and one is a male. On Thursday six new cases of the disease were reported by health department. With them the number of people affected by dreaded H1 N 1 virus this season has reached to 152.
The district In charge of integrated disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Puneet Chandra said that six cases were found positive on the day while samples of ten patients proved negative.
Dr Chandra said 142 cases have been found positive by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) in this year and out of them 88 are from Dehradun, 36 are from other districts of the state and 18 are from other states. He said that 18 patients suspected to be suffering from the disease are at present undergoing treatment in different hospitals of Dehradun. Out of them 16 patients are admitted in Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) and one each in Mahant Indiresh and associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC). He further informed that the department has sent samples of 80 suspected patients to the NCDC for test of H1 N1 this month but reports of 26 are yet to arrive. So far 19 patients have succumbed to swine flu so far out of which eleven are from Dehradun.
The spurt in the number of H1 N1 affected people during this time of the year has surprised the experts. The disease usually spreads during winter season. They are of the view that the erratic weather conditions due to which sudden fall in the temperature occurs is responsible for spread of the H1 N1 virus.