Table of Contents
Why in News?
- The death of the long ailing former Union minister George Fernandes, after he contracted swine flu, has triggered concern over infection by the H1N1 virus. The reference to swine comes from 2009, when the world saw a particularly severe outbreak that the World Health Organisation labelled a “pandemic”
DATA
- According to data compiled by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there have been 4,571 cases of swine flu and 169 deaths from the disease across the country this year until January 27.
- India is witnessing a new rise in the number of cases and deaths due to swine flu.
- Gujarat is the worst-affected, followed by Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and Delhi.
- The number of cases in the southern states is also high compared with last year, especially in Tamil Nadu. Swine Flu
- Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (SOIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs.
- It is an orthomyxovirus that contains the glycoproteins haemagglutinin and neuraminidase. For this reason, they are described as H1N1, H1N2 etc.
Risk Factors
- Since swine flu can directly be transmitted from one person to another through air droplets, people who fail to follow proper hygiene, especially in crowded places are at a high risk of contracting the virus. But, according to observations, there are specific groups of individuals that have been the most affected by the illness. India has not learnt any lessons from the 2015 H1N1 epidemic There is no system in place to release data periodically Failure to spread awareness Uptake of influenza vaccination by people Urgent measures
- TREATMENT PREVENTION
Way Forward
- A range of administrative policies and practices • Information could be collected from different surveys and surveillances
- Vaccine
- Database
- Prevention
- Diagnose
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