Panic continues to rage concerning the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. At the same time, other viral outbreaks are also rearing their heads. Sporadic outbreaks of swine flu (H1N1) have begun occurring across a number of states with Himachal Pradesh hard-hit by the disease. An estimated eleven people have tested positive for H1N1 according to Himachal […]
Swine flu
H1N1 claims more lives in Maharashtra
H1N1 has claimed more than 200 lives in Maharashtra this year, as the state continues to be a hotspot of the disease in India. Commonly known as ‘swine flu’, H1N1 has been a blight on public health in India in recent years. An outbreak in 2015 recorded 42,592 cases and 2,990 deaths. After a plateau […]
Swine flu on the rise in India?
Swine flu cases could hit numbers as high as the 2016 and 2017 outbreaks, as disease cases surge across India. 2018 saw a lull in disease cases as 14,992 people contracted swine flu and 1,103 died as a result. Previous years saw the disease wreak a far more devastating impact. 38,811 cases were reported in […]
Swine flu scourge in Maharashtra
Swine flu continues to take a toll in Maharashtra as reports confirm more deaths. At the time of writing, the state has confirmed 2,135 cases of the disease with 202 people losing their lives. State capital Mumbai has borne the brunt of cases, with 632 reported. Pune, meanwhile, has reported the most deaths with fifty […]
Swine flu cases in Gujarat: Symptom of a national problem?
Gujarat recorded the second-highest number of swine flu cases in India in just under the first seven months of 2019, the Gujarat High Court has been informed. Between January 1st and June 23rd, 4,772 cases were recorded resulting in 149 deaths. Only Rajasthan recorded more cases while Rajasthan and Maharashtra recorded more fatalities. At the […]
A spike in monsoon flu cases in Lucknow
Doctors in Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow are warning of a spike in cases of flu amidst the monsoon season. Since the onset of rains, cases have jumped by 600 percent with multiple hospitals reporting increased visitors of individuals with flu in their outpatient departments. At the King George’s Medical University, between fifty and sixty […]
Rajasthan to look to Maharashtra on how to handle swine flu cases
Rajasthan has been battling swine flu cases since the beginning of the year. Now it is looking to another state with a high burden of the disease – Maharashtra – for guidance on how to handle it. “We will implement [the] Maharashtra model in the state to combat swine flu,” said Dr Ravi Prakash Sharma, […]
A swine flu lab inaugurated in Punjab
A swine flu lab has been inaugurated in Punjab as part of ongoing efforts to curb the disease in India. A relatively recent phenomenon, swine flu – officially known as H1N1 – came to prominence with a spate of global outbreaks which began in Mexico in 2009. In India, the disease has become an issue […]
Lessons from the dengue and H1N1 rise in Mumbai
The first quarter of 2019 saw an increased burden of dengue fever in Mumbai compared to last year, official figures show. Yet there may be other causes for concern when it comes to infectious diseases in the metro. India’s largest city and the state capital of Maharashtra reported 44 cases of dengue in the January-March […]
Ventilators are in short supply in Delhi – and some don’t work
Public hospitals in the national capital are struggling with a frightening shortage of ventilators. Health Issues India recently highlighted the story of Farhan, a three-year-old boy suffering from a rare disorder called Leigh syndrome. The hospital treating him lacked a spare ventilator. This forced the boy’s family to manually ventilate him, by pumping air into […]