Even as Delhi has bid adieu to winter, the Capital has been seeing a surge in flu cases in the last few weeks.

Hospitals across the city have reported a spike in patients affected by Influenza B and H1N1 (swine flu) viruses. Upper respiratory tract infections, high-grade fever across age groups, and cough and fatigue lasting a couple of weeks are common symptoms that patients have been complaining about, experts underlined.

Dr Rommel Tickoo, Director, Internal Medicine, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi, said a rise in influenza-like illness cases was registered over the last month. “It’s a bad strain of flu.

I have seen a mixed bag — Influenza A, B, H1N1, H3N2, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that causes infection of the lungs and respiratory tract. In certain cases, even tests are not able to confirm… but it is an influenza-like virus,” he said.

Dr Tickoo pointed out that the virus has affected all age groups. “Children, adolescents, adults, elderly… A lot of children are catching it, and they are bringing it back home,” he said.

The surge in viral cases has also led to an increase in hospitalisation of patients with pneumonia, bronchitis, and sinusitis. “This strain is causing a lot of bronchitis with excessive cough, just like it was happening after contracting Covid (during the pandemic).

A majority of patients need nebulisers or inhalers, and some of them also need oral steroids… This could be due to strain mutation, but it needs to be checked with a virologist,” he said.

According to Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi, “the symptoms are not only prolonged but (patients) require hospitalisation as well”.

“The caseload too has increased over the last two weeks,” he highlighted, adding that even younger people, those between 35 and 40 years of age, have complained of severe body ache, persistent cough, and no improvement in conditions.

“They are developing chest pain, secondary cough, and acute restlessness, compelling them to seek hospital admission for better management even when they don’t require it,” he added.

Dr Tickoo said that not everybody visiting his OPD is being asked to undergo testing but is being prescribed anti-flu medicines. “By the time people come to the OPD, they have had a course of antibiotics or they insist on antibiotics…

This is flu-like illness and it does not have any specific treatment… except for H1N1 and H3N2, which is prevalent right now,” he said.

Fever, associated with loss of appetite, sense of taste, and smell, leading to fatigue, headache, and weakness, is among the common symptoms.

At Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, there have been patients admitted on ventilators after catching mostly Influenza B. According to Dr Sumit Ray, Medical Superintendent, a majority of them are patients with co-morbid conditions like bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and interstitial lung disease.“Some also have underlying heart disease as well,” he said.

Dr Tushar Tayal, Lead Consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, C K Birla Hospital, said influenza is caused by two kinds of viruses: A and B.

“H1N1 comes in the category of influenza A; I haven’t seen too many cases of it this year, but I have seen cases of Influenza B, which is causing similar flu-like symptoms.

This is much stronger than the normal flu kind of infection that we see, and people are getting both chest symptoms as well as abdominal symptoms, including vomiting, loose motions along with cough and runny nose and people are also ending up pneumonia also,” he said.

Influenza B, the virus that mostly infects humans, is less common than influenza A and mutates slowly. H1N1 (swine flu) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which tends to have severe symptoms.

Dr Tayal recommended that flu shots should be taken every year.

“People do not take flu vaccine routinely. Ideally, it should be taken in September and October. But in India, the coverage for flu vaccine is not that high, and people tend to skip it, because of which they catch the infection more severely.Everyone above the age of six months should get the vaccine,” he said.

“Every year, some or the other virus grows in particular and causes infections. What we have learned from Covid is to wear a mask, keep sanitising your hands and take the flu vaccine every year on time,” he added.

Source : indianexpress