The first case of Swine Flu (H1N1 positive) for current calendar year got registered in Anantapur district with a person from Anantapur being treated at a special ward in Government General Hospital here.
While it was rampant in 2018 in Anantapur and Kurnool districts with 12 deaths recorded in Kurnool and 10 positive cases in Anantapur district, 2019 was relatively better with only 11 positive cases detected with no fatalities in Anantapur district. Most of the serious cases used to go to Kurnool and Bengaluru in those days, but now a special ward created then houses these patients and treatment is done in Anantapur Government Hospital.
A resident of Rudrampeta in the city (Name withheld) was diagnosed H1N1 positive and was being treated in a special ward in the GGH here, four other suspected cases were also being treated in other private hospitals. Government General Hospital Superintendent M. Ramaswamy Naik told The Hindu that while this one person, an adult male was being treated for Swine Flu, he was stable, some other patients too had come with symptoms and serology tests were being conducted for confirming the status.
The GGH in Anantapur has microbiology laboratory, which can test if a patient was H1N1 positive or not and all cases from the private hospitals too need to send the samples to the GGH as of now to confirm its status, he observed. “It is generally rampant during October, November and December months, but fortunately in 2019 it was relatively dormant with very few cases reported, and it is surprising that mid-January also Swine Flu cases were reported,” Dr. Ramaswamy added.
Appealing to the general public, he asked them not to panic, but come immediately to the GGH if they had symptoms of headache, fever and cold to ascertain the H1N1 status and it can be treated like any simple fever case very easily in majority of cases.
