Majority of swine flu patients from Ghaziabad city, says report

ccording to official records, nearly 69 out of 92 positive cases were recorded from city areas this year. The officials of the health department said that areas in city were severely hit this time as they have denser population when compared to other areas in the district.

The number of swine flu cases in Ghaziabad has been worse for city areas this year, reports suggested.

According to official records, a total of 92 cases had tested positive for H1N1 virus till August 25 in Ghaziabad. (Sakib Ali/ Ht Photo)

According to official records, nearly 69 out of 92 positive cases were recorded from city areas this year. The officials of the health department said that areas in city were severely hit this time as they have denser population when compared to other areas in the district.

According to official records, a total of 92 samples had tested positive for H1N1 virus till August 25. This includes nearly 69 positive cases from city areas like Nehru Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Crossing Republik, Patel Nagar, Raj Nagar and Kavi Nagar.

“The city areas have denser population and a majority of cases were reported from here. Swine flu is not a vector-borne disease. Since people to people contact causes the disease to spread more cases surfaced in city area this time. These cases include all three categories of patients – A, B and C,” said GK Mishra, district health officer.

According to officials, the A category of patients are initially not given Tamiflu and kept under observation on antibiotics. If they don’t respond to antibiotics, then these patients are given Tamiflu.

“The category ‘B’ patients are those who have a travel history and may also have someone in family or neighbourhood with symptoms of swine flu.
We generally take testing only for category ‘C’ patients who develop breathing issues and have to be hospitalised,” Mishra added.

According to official records this year, the trans-Hindon area reported only 12 cases of swine flu which were confirmed positive by National Centre for Disease Control. The other positive cases were from rural areas of the district, including Loni and Murad Nagar.

The officials said that they have also tested 85 samples for dengue and another 20 for chikungunya and there ahs been no positive cases of either diseases in the district so far.