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Two swine flu deaths in Delhi

Special Correspondent

Four deaths in Bangalore; total confirmed cases 2,401

— PHOTO: V.V. Krishnan

A scene outside the special screening centre for swine flu at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: With Delhi reporting its first two deaths on Thursday, the A(H1N1) influenza death toll in the country has touched 36. In Bangalore, four more A(H1N1) deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 11 in a week. All the four victims were women.

As many as 159 new positive cases have also been confirmed, taking the total to 2,401. Barring two cases that have a travel history, all new ones are indigenous. Pune continued to lead the mortality figures with 15 deaths and 66 new cases, followed by Bangalore with nine deaths and 13 new cases. Deaths have also been reported from Mumbai and Nashik (three each), Delhi (two), and Ahmedabad, Chennai and Vadodara one each.

Use Ayurveda, Unani to bolster immunity: Centre

The Centre on Thursday said Ayurveda and Unani interventions could be used for increasing the immunity to fight various flu-like conditions. These could be adopted by normal healthy persons as well as those with mild symptoms such as cold, cough and body pain. However, in the case of severe symptoms, classified under ‘B’ and ‘C’ categories, people are advised to go to the designated screening centres and hospitals for clinical diagnosis and take specific drugs like Oseltamivir and supportive therapy as advised by doctors.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry arrived at this conclusion after taking into consideration the expert opinion received by the Department of AYUSH.

The department has set up a group of experts for suggesting interventions through Indian systems of medicine which are useful in the prevention/treatment of flu-like diseases. The group, comprising Ayurveda experts, physicians from government hospitals and private sector as well as from research councils, was of the view that viral epidemics come under the “Vaata Kaphaja Jwara” category mentioned in Charak Samhita and other ancient Ayurvedic texts. Most of the viral fevers, including various types of flu come under this category.

Ayurveda has advised preventive measures for building immunity and protection from Vaata-Kaphaja diseases. These include avoiding kapha-provocating diet such as curd, cold food, cold drinks, fruit juices, especially citrus fruits, fermented food and ice-cream. People have been advised to drink hot water, and decoction made up of any one or combination of tulsi, ginger, black pepper, long pepper, guduchi in the morning. Ayurvedic medicines such as Sudershanghanavati, Sudershana Churna, Samshamani Vati (Guduchi Ghanavati) work by improving the host defence mechanism. Vamana (emesis) procedure of Panchakarma may also be taken up under the observation of an expert vaidya, if necessary.

The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine has come out with recommendations for preventive measures. Unani experts have suggested drinking of a decoction or tea of Unnab, Bahidana, Sapistan and Dalchini.

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