The unseasonal Swine flu has so far claimed 11 lives in the State capital. These deaths coupled with detection of many patients of the disease have resulted in a scare which has gripped the city. On Saturday hundreds of parents whose wards are studying in one of prominent schools of the city were shocked when the school authorities sent them a message that due to detection of three cases of swine flu, the school is being closed till further orders. This step of the school though taken as a measure to prevent infection from spreading has worried the parents of other schools as well. The District Health Department meanwhile has questioned the school authorities to take such a measure without caring to inform them. The claim of three cases of swine flu in the school is being denied by Health Department.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr TC Pant said that the department has questioned the school on closer due to swine flu. He however added that everyone should be alert about the disease but at the same time unnecessary panic should not be created. Dr Pant said that isolation wards have been set up in all the major hospitals and the department has adequate stock of swine flu medicines. The health department has so far sent samples of 145 suspected patients of swine flu for presence of H1 N1 virus to the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC). The samples of 54 patients have so far been found positive for the disease and out of them 11 patients have succumbed to the disease. The results of samples of 17 suspected patients are still awaited by the department.
Swine flu is a viral disease, 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.