This season, the WHO has withdrawn the pandemic alert – many doctors and researchers say the alert was at the behest of some pharmaceuticals which made a killing (pun intended) – but the alarm has finally hit Tamil Nadu’s people; last year those who manifested the disease were NRIs mostly. According to an action taken report, the health department filed before the Madras high court, nine deaths have been recorded by the department. There have been four other deaths recorded by corporation hospitals. Four died in two weeks out of the 736 confirmed cases. But a farmer dying near Coimbatore is the cause for anxiety because “it means the disease has been spreading laterally” as Dr P. Gunasekaran, deputy director, Guindy’s King Institute, puts it. The Guindy Institute is receiving at least 50 throat swabs a day, of which one-fourth are detected as positive. Chennai has recorded 169 cases in the last two months, including 51 people now undergoing treatment. Last year 930 persons were detected with the virus and four of them had died.
“What we need is intensive monitoring at the village level, as the virus has entrenched itself in the general population. Those who became carriers of AH1N1 virus in the first wave are passing the infection on to others, with the monsoon acting to the virus’ advantage,” explains Dr S. Elango, former director of public health.