Lethal swine flu sniffs life out of 1-year-old
POSTED June 22, 2010 - 14:00 | POSTED BY Jyoti Pal
Last edited by Jaspreet Virk on June 22, 2010 - 15:07
After accounting for thousands of deaths and infecting scores of people last year, the influenza A, H1N1 has struck again, claiming 62 lives in Maharashtra alone since April this year.
Eight people tested positive for swine flu from various parts of Maharashtra on Monday, taking the tally of infected cases to 498 in the state.
Infant had fever for 5 days
The dreaded virus took its nastiest possible form when it sniffed life out of a one-year-old resident of Dharavi.
With the latest death, the tally of those who have succumbed to the virus this month has touched three.
The child had fever at least five days before his admission at the civic-run Sion hospital.
"The boy was gasping for breath so we did not want to waste anytime and put him on a course of Tamiflu," said paediatrician Dr Preeti Shanbag of Sion hospital, who treated the little one.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the family had taken him to any other doctor prior to admitting him in Sion.
The boy’s throat swab was sent for examination at the PCR laboratory in Kasturba Hospital on Thrusday. Reports received Friday confirmed the presence of the H1N1 virus.
"We got his reports by Saturday evening that confirmed the presence of the H1N1 virus. But, his condition had already deteriorated by then," said Shanbag.
The infant succumbed to complications at the paediatric ICU at Sion Hospital on June 20.
Precautions in place
Infants, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions are considered most vulnerable to the swine flu since their immunity is low.
The government has already issued an advisory that such people should consult a doctor the moment they observe any flu-like symptoms.
The BMC has so far not issued any guidelines to private hospitals regarding treatment of swine flu patients.
"We will meet with state government officials soon to decide on the matter," said Dr G T Ambe, executive health officer, BMC.
As a precaution, the BMC has administered the swine flu vaccine to healthcare workers in the city hospitals.
"The vaccine will be administered to only healthcare staff working in close contact with swine flu patients," confirmed Ambe.
As things stand, the general public will not be administered the vaccine but the suspected patients can go in for the vaccination.
“We have been advising hospitals to immediately administer Tamiflu to suspected patients,” averred Ambe.
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