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Friday March 29, 2024

First case of Influenza A H1N1 virus reported

By Muhammad Qasim
December 30, 2018

Islamabad : Influenza A H1N1 virus may cause localised outbreaks in this region of the country as the first case of the infection now called seasonal flu and wrongly called swine flu has been confirmed on Friday at Nishtar Hospital in Multan in the Punjab province.

Usually the outbreaks of Influenza A H1N1 are reported from December to January in the region and after the appearance of Influenza Pandemic of A H1N1 in 2009, the same infection has been appearing as a regular feature for the last many years with regular reports of cases and deaths on yearly basis since 2010.

This year, till the first week of January, a good number of confirmed cases of seasonal flu were reported from scattered areas of Punjab and Sindh while in Multan well over 50 patients were confirmed positive for influenza A H1N1 while the infection claimed at least 18 lives there.

To avoid seasonal flu outbreaks, the most important thing is public awareness as prevention from influenza A virus is the best option, said District Health Officer Islamabad Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He said anyone who can afford must opt for vaccination against the infection and all the health departments should immunize their health care workers as a first priority to protect the essential health infrastructure.

He added the government must direct all public sector hospitals to work out a high level of preparedness to deal with the patients of seasonal flu in the high transmission season by developing standard isolation units, stockpiling of personal protective equipment, capacity building in the art of infection control and adopting barrier nursing techniques along with procuring sufficient viral transport media and reagents for laboratories from NIH. He added that the high morbidity and mortality due to influenza like symptoms leading to pneumonia are reported mainly because of poor diagnosis and late presentation of cases. Ideally, to avoid deaths, the patients need to be administered early, within 48 hours of onset of symptoms, he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that influenza pandemics are usually unpredictable and usually occur every 10-15 years or so. During the past 150 years, the major pandemics occurred in 1889, 1918, 1957 and 1968 that resulted in tens of millions of deaths. In 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, over 500 million cases and 20-40 million deaths were reported. In 1957 Asia influenza pandemic, nearly two million deaths were registered while in 1968, Hong Kong influenza pandemic killed about one million people globally.

Dr. Durrani who is member of GOARN (Global Outreach Alert & Response Network) said influenza epidemics affect all populations seriously but the highest risk of complications occur among children below two years of age, adults aged 65 years or older, pregnant women and people of any age with certain medical conditions such as chronic heart, lung, kidney, liver, blood or metabolic diseases such as diabetes or weakened immune systems.

Referring to history, he said pandemic influenza A H1N1 appeared in 2009 and claimed thousands of lives in the world including Pakistan. National Institute of Health, Islamabad tested and confirmed 679 cases in Pakistan and 39 deaths were reported from 2009 till 2010. The year of 2011 had also shown a surge in the disease as there were 300 cases and 16 deaths reported in the winter season ending in February-March.

Since then the virus H1N1 somehow; gradually became less virulent and caused less damage and named as Seasonal Flu but still it is capable of causing high mortality in a segment of population that is at high risk of developing severe disease, he said.

The virus is transmitted through droplets when an infected person coughs or by hands contaminated with influenza viruses and hence to prevent transmission, a patient must cover mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing and wash hands regularly and frequently, said Dr. Durrani.