220 healthworkers get vaccine shots for ‘swine flu’ to prevent co-infection with Covid-19

The district health department over the past two weeks has administered vaccines for Influenza-A — also known as ‘swine flu’ — to at least 220 health department

The district health department over the past two weeks has administered vaccines for Influenza-A — also known as ‘swine flu’ — to at least 220 health department staffers who were categorised as ‘high-risk’ individuals to prevent any chance of co-infection while they work to contain the spread of Covid-19.

HT Image

These 220 individuals include doctors, nurses and other staff working in close contact with patients at Civil Hospital in Sector 10, and across 18 primary healthcare centres, urban PHCs and community healthcare centres in Gurugram.

“This was done to eliminate the risk of swine flu and Covid-19 co-infection. Swine flu, caused by a strain of influenza virus known as H1N1, is also a respiratory disease that has now taken the form of seasonal flu. Transmission of H1N1 accelerates during the winter months. While we have administered H1N1 vaccines to staffers in previous years, we have scaled up the exercise this year because of the added risk of Covid-19, for which there is no vaccine yet,” said Dr Naresh Garg, district immunisation officer, Gurugram.

Garg added that while cases of H1N1 and Covid-19 co-infection are yet to be recorded, they had not ruled out the possibility. “Contracting both illnesses at the same time could rapidly alter the patient’s chance of a healthy recovery, as we have seen in cases of dengue and Covid-19 co-infection,” he said.

In 2019, Gurugram had to contend with it’s worst outbreak of swine flu in five years, with at least 97 cases being reported across both government facilities and private hospitals, according to district health department data. The number of suspected H1N1 cases, who exhibited symptoms but did not receive a confirmatory diagnosis (through lab tests), was placed at over 115. At least five patients have succumbed to the illness in government facilities in Gururgam over the last two years, health department data confirms.

“No confirmed cases of H1N1 have been reported from Gurugram this year,” said Dr Garg, who was unable to provide data on the number of suspected cases recorded this year. Though, he said, that the Covid-19 lockdown imposed in March may have impacted surveillance for the disease. “But with winter properly settling in, we are expecting cases to rise soon. While H1N1 vaccines are not covered under India’s universal immunisation program, we have adequate stock of Tamiflu tablets, which are effective in treating the illness,” he added.