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NEW DELHI : India is seeing a surge in H1N1, or swine flu, even as it reports fewer covid-19 cases.
There were 13,202 reported H1NI cases last year, with 410 deaths. In comparison, 12 people died from swine flu in 2021.
Given the low number of covid cases, the samples after turning negative are sent for H1N1 further testing.
According to the National Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, the highest number of cases have been reported from Maharashtra (3,714), followed by Tamil Nadu (2,827), Gujarat (2,174), West Bengal (659), Karnataka (517), Delhi (412), Chhattisgarh (399) and Uttar Pradesh (388).
Most deaths have been reported from Maharashtra (215), followed by Gujarat (71), Punjab (42), Tamil Nadu (25), Karnataka (15), Haryana (12) and Rajasthan (11).
“We are seeing large number of pandemic influenza H1N1 cases. This reporting of cases is due to the extensive covid-19 surveillance and alert. Whenever a sample is referred for covid-19 testing and when it is negative, parallelly it is also tested for H1N1 because symptoms of both the diseases are similar," said a scientist at NIV Pune requesting anonymity.
