Swine flu death toll climbs to 35 in South Punjab

Eight more H1N1 influenza virus patients admitted to South Punjab hospitals

MULTAN: With two more deaths due to seasonal influenza (H1N1) at Nishtar Hospital, the number of victims surged to 26 in Multan, raising the total toll to 35 in South Punjab over a two-month period.

Hospital sources confirmed that Bilquees Bibi, 48, and Muhammad Amin, 80, belonged to Multan.

Nishtar Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Abdul Rehman Qureshi said that another 10 patients were shifted to hospital this week.

He said that eight more H1N1 influenza virus patients were admitted to southern Punjab hospitals and they were shifted to isolation wards. With this addition, the total number of influenza patients has surged to 206 from 198 in just 24 hours on Friday. Influenza patients have been admitted in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh, Lodhran and Rajanpur districts.

The number of swine flu victims climbed up to 119 from to 116 in Mulatn district. Dera Ghazi Khan and Lodhran received one patient each with H1N1 symptoms. The number of influenza patients has reached seven in Dera Ghazi Khan and Lodhran has four. There are 21 influenza patients in Khanewal, 30 in Muzaffargarh and four in Rajanpur.



Multan district has received the highest number of patients with positive H1N1 symptoms. Muzaffargarh witnessed the second highest number of patients with influenza symptoms. The district received 19 positive cases. Khanewal received 10 H1N1 flu virus patients.

The spokesman said 75 H1N1 positive patients have been recovered and discharged from respective hospitals.

He said the symptoms of H1N1 included fever, chills, cough and body aches which last about eight days, on average. Some symptoms may continue longer than that.

While explaining H1N1 flu virus, physicians said influenza virus may survive better in colder, drier climates and therefore be able to infect more people.

Influenza is a viral respiratory illness. The flu is often confused with another virus, the common cold, because of the similarity in symptoms, which can include a cough, sore throat and stuffy nose. However, flu symptoms also include fever, cold sweats, body aches, headache, exhaustion and even some gastro-intestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, physicians said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2018.