The Ministry of health as well as doctors are at their wits' end as the number of swine flu cases continue to surge despite rising temperatures.
At present, the death toll due to the H1N1 virus is around 631, two times that of previous year's. Medical experts had expected that with the onset of summer, the cases will reduce as it becomes difficult for the virus to incubate in high temperature. However, this presumption seems to have failed as the number of swine cases have not decreased in the country.
"As it starts getting warmer, we expected cases to come down. This year the trend is different," said Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.
Accoding to The Times Of India, government data shows that around 9, 311people in India have been affected by the H1N1 virus, with 300 hundred people dying in the month of February alone.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister JP Nadda urged pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the supply of anti-viral drug tamiflu to various state hospitals and retail outlets at the earliest so as to prevent the deadly disease from spreading further.
"We've asked companies to airlift stocks, if required. We'll monitor availability in the retail market," Union health secretary BP Sharma said.
However, the government is still hoping that swine flu will stop spreading soon as awareness and various preventive measures have been adopted by people. The Health Ministry has ordered health workers in all states be provided with protective kits.
