The sudden drop of almost 10 degrees in maximum temperature on Wednesday after rains has brought back the threat of swine flu in the provisional state capital. The health experts opine that the prevailing temperature conditions are most conducive for H1 N1, the virus of swine flu to spread. The provisional state capital recorded a maximum temperature of 18 degree Celsius on Wednesday which was 10 degrees lower than the maximum temperature of a day earlier.
Senior physician, Dr S K Varun told The Pioneer that the low temperatures are conducive for virus of swine flu to spread. He said that both the people and health department should take additional precautions during this period of time to prevent spread of infection. The doctors are also worried as festival of Holi which involves use of water and more physical contact among people is also very near and viruses like swine flu can spread in such a situation.
The health department has reported one case of swine flu in Dehradun. This woman had recently traveled from Pune and the department officials insist that she contacted the disease in Pune. She at present is hospitalised in a private hospital. The district In- charge of integrated disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Puneet Chandra accepted that virus thrives in low temperature but added that mere one or two days of chilling would not be conducive for the virus to multiply. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr Y S Thapliyal said that the department had conducted a survey of the area from the only case of swine flu was reported and found no local source of infection. He said that the department had so far collected samples of 16 suspected cases out of which one case was found positive, 13 were reported negative while results of two are still awaited.
The CMO claimed that the department is on high alert and all geared up to combat the disease. He informed that all hospitals have adequate stock of Tami flu, N- 95 Masks, triple layered masks and BTM vials.
Swine flu is a viral diseases, its virus is also called H1 N1 and its genetic analysis has shown that it has originated from the animals specially pigs hence it is called Swine flu. The virus spreads from person to person similar to that of seasonal influenza.