High incidence of swine flu cases in summer worry Rajasthan

A 40-year-old woman succumbed to the deadly swine flu virus in Kota last week with which the number of deaths in Rajasthan due to the disease has risen to 23 this year.
However, what has the state health department worried is that these cases continue to occur, despite the sweltering heat, in which the virus is believed to become dormant or less active at the least.
The department has now sent samples to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and hoping to find the answers.
"We do not exactly know the reason why the virus is still active in the hot climate. Last week, we have sent samples for laboratory testing to NIV, Pune. We will be able to comment once the report comes," Dr Aditya Atreya, incharge, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) said.

So far this year, 228 patients in Rajasthan have been confirmed afflicted by the virus. Of the these 114 patients were tested positive in the state capital Jaipur alone.
The health department had sent a total of 810 samples for laboratory testing and found 228 found confirmed H1N1 virus positive.

According to the official figures, six deaths were reported in Jaipur, three in Kota, two each in Ajmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Pali and Baran.
One death each was reported in Nagaur, Sikar, Jaisalmer and Barmer.
Meanwhile, in Bikaner, two more patients, including a 42 -year-old male and a 23-year-old female were reported positive on Sunday.

Bikaner chief medical and health officer, Dr Devendra Chaudhary said that eight patients have been found swine flu positive this year.