Amid Covid-19 outbreak in Mumbai, a dip in swine flu cases this year compared to 2019
Mumbai has reported 42 cases of swine flu between January to August 2020 compared to 432 cases during the same period in 2019
Amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in Mumbai, the first cases of which were reported over five months ago, the number of fresh cases of H1N1 swine flu virus has gone down in the first eight months of 2020 compared to 2019. Mumbai has reported 42 cases of swine flu between January to August 2020 compared to 432 cases during the same period in 2019, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data.
According to BMC officials, several factors contributed to the fall in the number of cases, of which one is the infection pattern, and another is extra hygiene precautions citizens are taking owing to the spread of Covid-19. In 2019, Mumbai recorded a total of 451 swine flu cases and five deaths. In comparison to this, 42 cases have been reported until August 25, 2020 with zero deaths, according to BMC.
Until February 2020, Mumbai saw 21 cases of swine flu, and the remaining 21 cases of swine flu were reported from March 1 to August 25, 2020, amid the Covid-19 outbreak. However, BMC has said the data from the last five years indicates a pattern—cases increase one year and decrease the next.
For example, in 2015 over 3,000 cases of swine flu were reported, followed by three in 2016, 995 in 2017, 25 in 2018 and 451 in 2019. In terms of deaths due to swine flu, in July and August 2020, Mumbai recorded zero cases of swine flu compared to 159 cases and two deaths being reported during the same period in 2019.
Dr Mangala Gomare, the executive health officer of BMC, said, “There have not been many swine flu cases this year, and in July and August till now there has not been a single case. There are a lot of reasons for low cases of swine flu, but what is different is that this year people are not moving like earlier, which could be a reason for a dip.”
Dr Gomare added, “Also, the main reason could be citizens taking respiratory precautions. Further, hand and general hygiene are better.”
The first few cases of swine flu appeared in India in 2009; it was declared a pandemic at that time by the World Health Organization (WHO). Swine flu is caused by the H1N1 virus, and is a strain of an influenza virus that generally originates in pigs, but spreads primarily from person to person.
The primary symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, headache, cough, sore throat and nausea. While most people recover within a week, people with low immunity and chronic diseases can face severe symptoms. However, in case of swine flu, unlike Covid-19, a vaccine is available and lakhs of citizens countrywide have been given the vaccine.
On the decline of swine flu cases, Dr Om Srivastava, infectious diseases expert and a member of Maharashtra’s Covid-19 task force said, “This is the nature of the virus. We cannot predict the exact reason, but the annual peak for swine flu starts from mid-August, so we still need to wait and see before reading much into this. However, cases going down in general is a good thing.”
Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 587 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday and 35 new deaths, taking the total to 1,37,683 cases and 7,477 deaths. Till now 1,11,962 patients have recovered in the city and the mortality rate of Mumbai stands at 5.43%.