Ahmedabad: Swine flu deaths had been on the rise in Gujarat. Delhi also is vulnerable to it in terms of morbidity or susceptibility to swine flu cases.
Gujarat had seen a total case of 1,651 swine flu deaths in the period, and Delhi, with 11,703 cases, was deemed to be the most vulnerable.
The study was done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, the US; and a paediatric consultant from Kolkata. The experts on a whole studied 1.14 lakh swine flu cases which ended in 8,543 deaths.
Senior officials from the health department said that the Saurashtra region (especially Bhuj and Rajkot) and Ahmedabad in central Gujarat acted as pacemakers for the flu during each outbreak.
“A total of 1,322 positive H1N1 cases were reported in Ahmedabad city till April 1 in 2019. Also, 28 people had died of the flu in the first three months. This was a four-year high,” said the senior health official.
In 2015, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had reported 2,131 cases in the first three months. In the period of the first three months, 152 cases were reported in 2016, 27 in 2017, and 19 in 2018.
The Top 5 states for reported swine flu deaths were Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Kerala, which accounted for 71% of all deaths from H1N1 in India. An interesting fact that emerged was that in the eight-year period, Lakshadweep and Sikkim reported no cases of H1N1.
Pranab Chatterjee of ICMR, Bhavna Seth of Johns Hopkins University, and Kolkata paediatrician Tamoghna Biswas carried out the study. The study says that the five states with the highest number of reported H1N1 cases were Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa, which accounted for 41% of all cases of swine flu in India.
