Has the swine flu virus changed? Hyderabad thinks it has, but Bangalore isn't so sure
Has the swine flu virus changed? Hyderabad thinks it has, but Bangalore isn't so sure
Doctors in Hyderabad said yesterday the H1N1 virus had mutated, but not everyone agrees.
Mutation would mean medicines now being administered will not work.
A report said the 'second wave' of the virus, coinciding with the rainy season, had become active. A third and more virulent wave is expected this winter, it said.
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Will it mutate? Experts in Hyderabad believe Swine flu will soon mutate into a more dangerous virus, Bangalore doesn't seem to agree. |
E A Ashok Kumar, Superintendent, Gandhi Hospital Superintendent, was quoted as saying, "Patients are dying within 24 to 48 hours after getting infected with the virus. This situation is not allowing doctors to treat the patient and that's why we are losing patients who have good immunity."
But doctors in Bangalore do not support this view. The earlier infection is still present, but the intensity is falling day by day, they said.
Dr T S Cheluvaraju, head of the monitoring cell for swine flu in Karnataka, said, "It is mere speculation and it is too early to say anything about it now."
The weather is playing its role in the spread, they agreed. "With fluctuations in the weather, the flu virus will not come down," Dr Oliver Rodrigues, general practitioner, said.
This view is supported by the Principal Health Secretary I R Perumal. "The same trend will continue as the season will remain the same," he told MiD DAY.
"The virus did not cause severe illness but, it might have genetically changed after coming into contact with a local influenza virus," a Hyderabad doctor said.
But, an official in the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Bangalore said Tamiflu was still effective and "so far no mutation has been found." "No research papers have been published in Bangalore regarding this," said Dr R Shashikanth, Medical Officer, St Martha's Hospital. "But maybe it has mutated."
Clinical research work has begun in Karnataka and a clinical audit is expected to provide the government with information relating to the causes and reasons for patients succumbing to the virus, an official said.
