Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday said overall 282 children are receiving treatment for AH1N1 or seasonal influenza and confirmed that there is no swine flu infection (H1N1) that caused 2009 swine flu pandemic in the state. The minister also confirmed that nine have died due to the influenza infection in one year.
Talking to ABP Live, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said: “There’s no swine flu cases in the state. Overall 282 children are receiving treatment for seasonal influenza at hospitals and homes.”
“In the past year, nine people have died due to influenza illness,” the health minister said about the deaths due to influenza. He has requested the public not to panic about the spread of the infection.
Earlier, multiple news reports suggested that swine flu cases are on the rise in the state.
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On Thursday, the Minister inspected the Government Children’s Hospital in Egmore and reviewed the treatment provided for the children.
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Influenza: Symptoms, Testing & Treatment
The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has also separately issued guidelines for isolation, testing, treatment and hospitalization for influenza.
The mild symptoms of the infection are muscle or body ache, headache, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhoea and running nose. Patients with such symptoms are requested to immediately visit the nearest healthcare facilities and get examined by a doctor.
Patients should be given additional care and must be tested with RT-PCR kits at AH1N1 approved labs if they have any of the following symptoms including breathlessness, hemoptysis, altered mental status, somnolence and poor feeding, seizures, decreased urine output and persistence or worsening of underlying chronic conditions like Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic kidney disease.
(With inputs from Raja Shanmugasundaram)