Hyderabad: Of the 50 people who have died from H1N1 in Telangana this year, 80 per cent suffered from other life-threatening diseases like uncontrolled diabetes. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, morbid obesity, coronary artery disease, anaemic conditions and also neurological disorder. The patients’ death analysis shows that they didn’t respond positively to the swine flu treatment because their co-morbid conditions became very aggressive as the virus attacked their immune system.
Dr K. Narsimulu, nodal officer at Gandhi Hospital, said, “Eighty per cent of the patients had co-morbid conditions. We have found that patients had uncontrolled diabetes and were suffering from lung diseases since two to three years and were also morbidly obese. In these patients, the white blood cells had been destroyed by the virus, due to which their immunity weakened and the load of the virus in the blood increased. When the viral load is high, the response to the treatment takes time and the co-morbid conditions get aggravated, leading to multi-organ failure or acute lung failure.”
Among the deaths, three were of pregnant women. Senior chest physician Dr K. Subhakar said, “Pregnant women are compromised because their body is already undergoing hormonal changes. When the virus attacks, the body systems are too weak to fight back. The dosage of medicine has to be given according to the stage of pregnancy and also the health of the foetus. A nutritious diet is important for them because even if they are attacked by the virus, their immune system can fight back.”
Over 10 pregnant women were identified with H1N1 since the outbreak started from November 4, 2014, till January 2015. Their contact history showed that they had gone out for festivals or they were at home taking care of senior citizens and contracted the virus from them.
The virus strain is not as virulent as it was in 2009, but the fatalities occurred due to unhealthy respiratory hygiene, lack of proper hand-washing practices and participating in mass gatherings.
Pulmonologist Dr Gopikrishna said, “Delay in treatment allows the virus to attack the body which then allows the bad bacteria in the body to activate. The chances of developing pneumonia increases and it then leads to complications
Shots failed to prevent swine flu
The last week of January has seen an increase in the number of patients who had taken vaccines for protection from H1N1, and yet had contracted the flu. Many people were scared and had got their children vaccinated. But they were in for a shock when their children showed symptoms and contracted the virus even after the shots.
A worried father, whose two daughters, aged three and 4-and-a-half years, contracted the virus, said, “It has been only a week since we vaccinated the children in January. But both my daughters got infected. While the elder one was prescribed home isolation, my three-year-old daughter underwent treatment for six days at Gandhi Hospital.
I didn’t take them to a private hospital as they charge exorbitantly.” District officers suspect that there may be more cases like this, but family members of patients are not willing to give details.
