The death of one swine flu affected patient on Wednesday and official confirmation of death of one more patient on Thursday in Dehradun has punctured the health department’s consistent claim that there is no need to worry about the disease in the State capital. Unable to effectively control the spread of the disease the health officials are now putting their hope on warm weather conditions to reduce the prevalence of infection.
On Thursday reports of seven patients arrived from National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC). Incidentally the reports of all seven proved positive for Swine Flu. The district in charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Madan Bonal told The Pioneer that the sample of Kotdwar resident Malti Devi who died at Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) on March 13 has proved positive for the disease. Interestingly the department did not send any sample to NCDC on Thursday. Dr Bonal clarified that the samples were not taken as the number of suspected patients are declining in the city. He said that samples of 52 patients have proved positive for swine flu in the district out of which four have succumbed to the disease. The department now awaits the reports of 27 samples from NCDC.
The increase in temperature this week has come as a succor to the beleaguered health department. Dr Bonal said that since the virus becomes less active during warm weather conditions the chances of spread of infection are much less now. The virus becomes less effective at temperature of 30 Degree Centigrade and more. With more than 1800 deaths and about 31000 affected people in the country since January this year, the swine flu is threatening to assume epidemic proportions. Thankfully the prevalence of disease is less in Uttarakhand, but the state capital continues to reel under its effect.