The number of swine flu cases and deaths continue to rise across India. Ten H1N1 infections were detected in Surat on Tuesday, and five cases each were detected in Bhubhaneswar and Lucknow, news reports said.
Swine flu has affected more than 12,000 people and caused over 600 deaths in the first half of 2017, as against 1,786 infections and 265 deaths in the whole of 2016.
Pune was the worst hit city in the country with as many as 80 deaths reported in 2017. In July alone, the city recorded 21 H1N1 deaths.
None of the five patients who tested positive for the H1N1 virus in Bhubhaneswar had travelled outside the state, The New Indian Express reported on Wednesday. This implies that they were infected within Odisha.
The ten new cases detected in Surat has taken the total number of swine flu patients in the city to 37 since January. Of these, six died of the virus, The Times of India reported. In Lucknow, the total number of patients affected since early 2017 has risen to 65.
One out of every 25 Indians who contracted the H1N1 virus in 2017 has died, according to data from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. Doctors have said that the burden of the disease might be even higher than the surveillance programme estimates since not all patients with symptoms of H1N1 submit to being tested.
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