July 29,2024
Kolkata: A 54-year-old woman succumbed to swine flu at a private hospital in the city last Saturday (July 20), the first swine flu death reported in Kolkata this season and possibly the first death from the disease in three years. The woman was a leukaemia patient with comorbidities.
Hundreds of Kolkatans and residents of the suburbs have been laid low by swine flu, apart from other forms of influensa.
Before this, Kolkata’s last recorded swine flu death was in Aug 2021.
The woman had been admitted to Peerless Hospital early last week with multiple ailments. She was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a form of blood cancer. Even though the cause of death in her death certificate mentioned sepsis with septic shock, she had tested positive for H1N1 or swine flu, the hospital said, adding it had notified the state health department, following protocol.
“She had been frail due to cancer, comorbidities and her immunity was very low,” said a doctor at the hospital. “That could be a reason why she had contracted swine flu, which was not her only ailment.”
The hospital has seen a steady flow of swine flu and influensa cases in July. During the first half of the month, 58 per cent had tested positive for Influensa A, out of 55 samples tested.
As many as 18, or 56 per cent , of them were swine flu patients, while 14 or 44 per cent had seasonal influensa (H3N2). Eight swine flu patients are now in the hospital, though most have mild symptoms.
The number of samples testing positive for swine flu, however, has climbed down at Peerless in the latter half of July. “Out of 100 samples tested between July 1 and 27, around 20 per cent have turned out to be swine flu. Around 70 per cent of the samples tested this month have are positive for various strains of Influensa A,” said Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri, chief microbiologist at the hospital.
“Swine Flu cases have reduced over the last 8 to 10 days,” said Sayan Chakrabarty, infectious diseases physician, Manipal Hospitals.
At Peerless Hospital, out of 55 samples of ‘Flu PCR’— between July 1 and 16 — 32 have tested positive for Influensa A virus. Eighteen were swine flu patients, 14 had seasonal influensa. BP Poddar Hospital had got 86 patients with flulike symptoms in a week.
Source: Healthworld