Negligible number of Swine flu cases in Gujarat this winter compared to 1500 infections and over 50 deaths last year

Gandhinagar: Amid hue and cry over Novel Corona virus in Gujarat where in recent times a large number of people have returned from worst affected country China, one important point looks like lost that this year so far hardly any cases of swine flu have been reported in the western state where by around this time last year more than 1500 cases of H1N1 virus caused flu infection were reported with over 50 deaths across the state till February 10.

Deputy Director (Epidemic) of the health department in Gujarat, Dinkar Rawal today said that only a negligible number of swine flu cases have been reported across the state this year so far.

He owed it broadly to the better resistance and sanitation on the part of communities.

Rawal said that things like outbreak of virus borne Swine flu in a particular area followed a cyclic trend.

‘But it is not that the cycle follows a permanent kind of schedule. At times because of better resistance among the community and other factors it gets delayed too,’ he said.

He however said that even though much less number of cases of swine flu have been seen this year so far yet people should remain cautious and continue to maintain community hygiene because delay was not the guarantee for its non-recurrence.

Notably last year Gujarat had seen several thousand case of Swine flu with over 150 deaths prompting state health machinery to take several measures to contain it. For the past few years, swine flu used to create panic in Gujarat every time around this season and later.

DeshGujarat