Swine Flu Back in Pune

22nd March:
 The swine flu (H1N1) death toll went up to 7 as Vikas Sardesai (64) from Thergaon became the seventh person to succumb to the virus. He was admitted on March 11 and was suffering from fever, cough and drowsiness. 19 more cases of H1N1 virus were reported. 18 of them were from the PMC area and one from Pimpri Chinhwad. Five people are on ventilators. The total number of cases this month crossed 90. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar has directed the district collector to allocate Rs 1 cr from the the District Planning and Development Committee funds to purchase ventilators and ensure adequate medicine stock.
21st March:
 20 more people tested positive out of 1,505 screened yesterday. 39 year old Sanjay Joshi was the 6^th person in the district to succumb to swine flu. He passed away on 19^th March but swab samples delivered on 21^st confirmed that he had the virus. Doctors are optimistic that the rising temperature will help reduce the number of cases.
20th March:
  23 more people including 6 children tested positive for swine flu in the city taking the total numbers since March 5 to 65.  Health officials will check up on the schools these children studied for more cases. Immunity among children is generally lower for swine flu. Officials will want to avoid a repeat of 2009 when scores of children came down with disease and health officials said they’d be taking every precaution to prevent the disease from spreading among children. Two patients are still critical at KEM and Prayag hospital. Since the return of the H1N1 virus, this is the first time that such a large number of positive patients have been reported in a single day.
19th march:
 A 60-year-old S B Paigude was the latest victim to swine flu in Pune. He was a diabetes and hypertension patient. Paigude developed symptoms of cough and fever on March 15 and was admitted to a hospital when he developed breathlessness and Tamiflu was immediately given.
Eight new cases were detected on Monday while nine patients were successfully treated, officials said.
18th march:
Situation is now getting worse in Pune with the fourth victim (10-year-old Amrita suffering from Down’s syndrome) dying on Friday. Six more are critical and on ventilator support.
A high-level meeting was held to understand the cause and spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus and methods to check its spread. It was headed by J K Banthia, additional chief secretary and attended by people from the Directorate of Health Services, Mumbai’s Haffkine Institute, Pune’s National Institute of Virology and the Directorate of Medical education and research.
The committee discussed that the patients who died with swine flu are the ones who suffered from other co-morbid conditions (because their immunity was compromised) like diabetes, hypertension, Down’s syndrome, cancer etc. They checked the virus and announced that there is no mutation seen in its structure. The weather conditions in the last two months have been erratic with the difference in day and night temperatures being quite high, something whch could have compromised the immunity of the people as well as led to faster spread of the virus, they said.
The committee also concluded that only high-risk patients coming under category A will be tested forthe H1N1 infections. The categorization is as follows:

• Category C – mild symptoms like low-grade fever, cough, throat infections. 
• Category B – Patients with cough, running nose, headache. throat infection and fever above 38 degree centigrade. These patients are to be treated with a medicine called Tamiflu.
• Category A – Patients having all Category B complaints and have breathlessness. They should be tested immediately and admitted to hospitals, especially if they already suffer from co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cancer or any chronic illnesses.