Season’s first: 63-year-old tests positive for H1N1 in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: The health department on Friday confirmed the season’s first swine flu influenza (H1N1) case in the city.

The patient, a 63-year-old woman, was admitted to a private hospital last week with breathlessness, cough and high fever. She was discharged on Friday and is under quarantine at her Sector 51 home.

The health department has increased surveillance and all hospitals have been put on alert. Rapid response teams carried out contact tracing in about 50 houses in the area where the patient lives and gave Tamiflu to three of her close contacts. Health officials have been asked to report cases of influenza-like illness (ILI)/severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) unit.

Swine flu is a communicable respiratory disease caused by a subtype of influenza A virus, called H1N1. Ram Prakash, district immunisation officer, said the patient is the first case of the type C of the H1N1 virus this season. Type A and type B have symptoms such as common cold and do not generally require hospitalisation, but type C can cause a dip in blood pressure, pneumonia and difficulty in breathing and requires immediate hospitalisation.

“The woman’s sample was sent to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi and it returned positive,” he said.

An isolation ward and death audit committee for H1N1 cases has been set up. “Isolation and ventilator facilities in private hospitals have been identified. A total of 62 isolation beds and 52 ventilators are available for swine flu patients,” Prakash added.

Gurugram has also carried out training of all medical officers for prevention and control of such cases.

“We have directed hospitals not to charge more than Rs 4,500 for H1N1 tests,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Doctors said symptoms of flu should be treated at once and with care. A rise in body temperature, unusual fatigue, headache, sore throat, loss of appetite, diarrhoea and vomiting are some indicators of H1N1. The first case of swine flu in the city was reported in 2009, the year several parts of the country saw an outbreak.