Delhi Hospitals See Sudden Spike In Flu, Swine Flue Cases: Experts

Delhi hospitals have been witnessing a sudden surge in flu and swine flu cases in the last few days. According to one of the official surveys, as many as 41 per cent of Delhi households were surveyed wherein one or more members of the family were suffering from flu-like symptoms.

"Most of the cases are normal flu cases. The symptoms are typically in upper and lower respiratory tract related symptoms. Many a times, when we have done the flow panel for the patients or when we have done swine flu test, we have found that at least 2 per cent to 3 per cent of patients coming up positive with swine flu reports," said Dr Ashish Khattar, senior Consultant, Internal medicine, Venkateshwar Hospital.

"Definitely, the number of cases, as far as common flu is concerned has certainly gone up and it has gone up to a large extent. It's almost like a second peak," Dr Ashish Khattar said.

Dr Khattar said that this time, reportedly crowds have increased in several areas and hence such cases have increased. "It happens every year. But, this time, the frequency and the number of cases are much more. One reason is that there is a sudden surge of an outbreak of crowds outside. There has been a lot of footfall at the marketplaces, the hospital OPDs are full, people are probably not following the COVID behaviour norms and there is barely any social distancing norm being practised, as per my observation."

Most of the experts say that flu doesn't have very serious consequences but those who have comorbid conditions need to be careful, "It doesn't lead to very serious consequences. In most of the cases, unless you have underlying comorbid conditions, most of the times the patient would have just cough cold, fever, body aches, headache, runny nose, sneezing as complex symptoms." said Dr MS Kanwar, Senior Consultant, Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.