The denizens of provisional State capital are under the onslaught of Swine flu and Dengue at the same time.
On Thursday one more person suspected to be suffering from swine flu succumbed to the H1N1 virus in the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) Jollygrant Dehradun. The health department however is not reporting the death as due to swine flu as it has yet to receive the confirmatory report from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi.
It is learnt that the deceased, 29 year old resident of Bairagiwala in Dehradun was admitted in HIHT on July 17.
The district in-charge of integrated disease surveillance Programme, Dr Puneet Chandra said that 14 cases of swine flu have been found in the district in this month and out of them five patients have died. He further informed that samples of 45 patients suspected to be suffering from the disease have been collected in this month and results of 21 samples out of them are awaited. Dr Chandra said that 20 patients suspected to be suffering from the disease are at admitted in different hospitals of the district.
Meanwhile samples of two more patients were found to be positive for dengue on the day. Both these patients are admitted in the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC). Incidentally both these patients are the residents of Haridwar.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr T C Pant said that two dengue cases both residents of Haridwar were reported on Friday. He further added that the death that has occurred in HIHT is yet to be confirmed whether it is related to Swine Flu or not.
The unusual arrival of these two diseases at the same time has sent the district health department in tizzy as it has to wage a two front battle.
For swine flu the department has asked all the hospitals to set up isolation wards and sufficient stock of the tamiflu the medicine of swine flu is kept in different health centres.
Swine flu is a viral disease, its virus is also called H1 N1 virus 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.
Dengue has symptoms of persistent high fever, rashes, headache and pain in the joints. In the acute cases the platelets number decrease drastically which may prove fatal for the patient. The disease is spread by Aedes Aegypti or tiger mosquito (called due to the characteristic stripes on its body). It strikes during day time and experts suggest that people should wear full sleeved clothes to prevent mosquito bite.