News of the Day : States put on high alert as swine flu cases spike across the country

News of the Day 23 January 2019 – States put on high alert as swine flu cases spike across the country

With 49 swine flu deaths and 1,694 cases reported in just one fortnight from January 1-13 as per data released by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), several States are on alert.

Rajasthan alone has reported 31 deaths in this period with other instances being reported from Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

While the Rajasthan health department has reported that the number of cases in the State has crossed 1,000 with more than 200 people having died in the past 13 months, the Union Health Ministry has said that there is no cause for panic and that the situation is being closely monitored.

Highly contagious

H1N1 influenza (or swine flu) is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in people with direct exposure to pigs (e.g., children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry). However, there have been cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu.

“All State governments have been asked to create awareness about the spread, testing and prevention of swine flu and we have also asked them to ensure that there are enough beds and medicines to treat any cases that are being reported,” noted a senior Union Health Ministry official.

The Rajasthan health department confirmed that 1,036 people had tested positive between January 1 and 17, 2019, with nine fatalities reported in one week from January 13-17. “On January 17, 65 people tested positive for the flu,” the official added.

According to Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s IDSP, 14,992 people contracted swine flu in 2018, while 1,103 people died. In 2017, 38,811 people tested positive with 2,270 deaths.

“Children younger than five years old and adults who are 65 years and above, patients with chronic pulmonary condition (including asthma), neurological, neuromuscular or metabolic disorders (including diabetes), obese adults and pregnant women are in the high risk group,” said Dr. D.S. Chaddha, Fortis Hospital.

Research fellowship hike likely to be notified by February

With hundreds of student-researchers in several institutions across the country picketing for a hike in fellowships, two senior officials said that a decision should be out by the first week of February and the hikes could range from 25-50%.

On January 16 about 2,000 students and researchers, including from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the labs of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and several universities converged for a protest in Delhi. About 700 of them were briefly detained by the Delhi Police, as The Hindu has previously reported.

The students are gunning for at least an 80% hike in the research stipends given to those pursuing their doctoral degrees.

“These are legitimate demands and the matter is being deliberated in the finance ministry. Hopefully, it should be announced in a day or two,” said Shekhar Mande, Director-General, CSIR. The CSIR and the University Grants Commission have the largest outlay towards disbursing fellowships.

Another scientist, who was privy to the proceedings of the meeting, said the hike was likely to be announced “before the Budget/Vote-on-Account (Feb 1).” and that it would be above the norm. “It could be from 25-50% but not an 80-100% hike as demands were being made. Currently, finance advisors of various ministries are examining the required budgetary increases,” the scientist said.

Typically these stipends are significantly revised once in four years — the last being in 2014 — and a committee of scientists had recommended an increase after a meeting last December.

Paltry sum

Inspite of being a leading scientific power in terms of research publications, India spends about 0.7% of its GDP on research and development, which is much lower than countries of comparable scientific prowess.

The civilian science ministries were alloted ₹12,322 crore in February 2018, a hike of approximately 10% from the last year.

Source – The Hindu

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