More Swine Flu cases in Hyderabad

Hyderabad January 22: With one more death and a confirmed case of infection in an infant, swine flu cases in Hyderabad are on a steady climb.

The four deaths, all women, this month were reported at the Gandhi Hospital. Two women were less than 40 years.

On Friday, a 68-year-old woman from Bahadurpura succumbed to the illness. She was brought to the hospital on January 16.

As the hospital has a dedicated swine flu ward, suspected and confirmed cases are being referred to it from across the city.

At the Gandhi Hospital, a 10-month old infant is now the only patient undergoing treatment for swine flu, after being referred from another private hospital late on Friday. Seeking to assure the public, Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy informed reporters at NIMS Hospital on Saturday that swine flu was not a concern and the State was adequately geared to fight the illness. One patient is undergoing treatment at NIMS for the illness.

The death of two women, aged under 40 with no apparent co-morbid conditions, indicate that the virus causes illness that necessarily does not follow a textbook pattern.

Mohammed Razak, husband of Shaheen Begum, one of the women who succumbed to the virus last Sunday, said when his wife was first hospitalised, she did not have high fever, cough or respiratory distress, the classical symptoms of swine flu.

The rise in infections due to the virus is being attributed to cold weather.

This month alone, the number of positive cases and deaths is higher than those witnessed last year at the Gandhi Hospital.

Doctors hope that it will not touch proportions of 2015, when 156 cases were reported in January involving 31 deaths at the hospital.