The first swine flu isolation ward in Pune at the PMC-run Naidu Hospital for Infectious Diseases has not received a single admission for swine flu for at least two months now.
Dr S Wavre, assistant medical officer of health, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said, “The isolation ward for admitting patients of H1N1 cases at Naidu hospital bares a deserted look. Reason: There have been no admissions since two months and this is a good sign.”
Dr S Patsute, medical superintendent, Naidu Hospital, said, “Even though there are no admissions, the cases in the outpatient department has doubled since July. It has gone up from 150 patients per day to 350 every day.”
Dr Pradeep Awate, epidemic head and infectious diseases and surveillance programme head, Maharashtra health department, said, “The drop in admissions is due to awareness programmes and vaccination drives held by the state health department.”
“Swine flu has become an endemic and almost all pockets have been exposed as the infection decade-old. Even though we see cases, many a times patients are treated on outpatient department basis rather than in inpatient department basis. Critical cases often go to private hospitals for further treatment,” added Awate.
Talking about this, Wavre said, “At Naidu hospital we do not have an intensive care unit and hence we cannot admit critical cases. The isolation ward however has not been getting cases because most of the population screened with us immediately are put on Tamiflu which provides immediate relief and hence has reduced number of admissions.”
{{/usCountry}}Talking about this, Wavre said, “At Naidu hospital we do not have an intensive care unit and hence we cannot admit critical cases. The isolation ward however has not been getting cases because most of the population screened with us immediately are put on Tamiflu which provides immediate relief and hence has reduced number of admissions.”
{{/usCountry}}“Since 2009, we have screened 55,39,915 patients in Pune and out of them 3,72,154 were given Tamiflu. The population that was exposed in 2009 was 37 per cent , while today, since January 2019 till August 3, the population which has been tested positive for the infection is only 0.03 per cent. This shows the decline of this virus’s positive activity in Pune city,” added Wavre.
Swine flu cases in Pune
2019—154 positive cases and 17 deaths
2018—592 positive cases and 60 deaths
2017—703 positive cases and 42 deaths
2016—29 positive cases and 1 death
2015—1,126 positive cases and 50 deaths
Number of positive cases since 2009 till Aug 2019 —6,815