Incidence of H1N1 showing rising trend in Telangana

Hyderabad: The incidence of H1N1 Influenza has been showing rising trend in various states including Telangana. The State Health officials held a meeting with national and district level authorities on Friday to review the swine flu preventive strategies and strengthen the efforts.

According to Dr Pranay Kumar Verma, Assistant Director of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), mortality was predominant mainly in high risk categories such as people of extreme age groups, pregnant women, patients with lung disorders, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. He said high risk categories need extra caution and recommended to seek doctor’s advice early for treatment or vaccination.

Dr Kiran Maramraj of NCDC said influenza virus has unique feature of adopting new antigenic variations in the form of mutations which result in epidemics and re-assortments between various subtypes leading to pandemics. The healthcare workers are at increased risk of infection with influenza compared to the general adult population, said Dr Ashray Kanchan Naik, an expert in vaccination field.