NEW DELHI:
Swine flu has killed 34 more people in the country this year raising the toll to 875 and the number of affected crossed the 15,000 mark, Government said today, but there is no move as of now to vaccinate the general public from the respiratory disease.
Stating that swine flu is becoming a matter of “great concern”, Health Minister J P Nadda confirmed in both Houses of Parliament that the cases of Influenza A currently being reported are of H1N1 which is the same virus which took a huge toll in 2009 and 2010 and there is “no mutation” in the virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was “carefully watching” the swine flu situation in India though it said that there are “no signs” yet of the makings of a large outbreak of the H1N1 virus.
Collated data by Health Ministry said 875 people have died of the disease in various states till February 23 this year while 15,413 people were affected.
The morbidity and more importantly the mortality associated with the influenza are a matter of “great concern” for all of us, Nadda told Parliament.
Nadda said the number of reported cases in 2009 were 27,236 and in 2010 there were 20,604 cases. The number of deaths in 2009 were 981 and rose to 1,763 in 2010.
He said the Government has recommended vaccine only for the health workers and the decision was taken after due consultations with experts.
“Vaccination of general public is not advocated as a public health strategy at this juncture…The vaccination becomes effective after about three to four weeks of the injection and the immunity is only for about one year. Moreover, vaccination may not provide full protection against the virus,” he pointed out. (AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel