The Hindu : Front Page : H1N1 gets more virulent

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Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009
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H1N1 gets more virulent

‘Virus not giving any chance to doctors to treat patient’

HYDERABAD: The H1N1 virus, ‘imported’ to Hyderabad from overseas, is showing signs of getting ‘mutated’ into a more virulent form. Clinical observation of experts in the State capital indicate that the genetic make up of H1N1 virus has ‘changed’ and is now more ‘potent’ after coming into contact with the local existing viral forms.

This is the ‘second wave’ of swine flu virus, coinciding with the rainy season, which is still active. There is a possibility of onset of a third and more virulent form in the upcoming winter season. The virus is getting more ‘time’ to stay in the atmosphere because of low temperatures, experts opine. A pattern, among the fatalities has been detected. “Patients are dying within 24 to 48 hours after getting infected with H1N1. The virus is not giving any chance to the doctors to treat the patient. That’s why we are losing patients who have good immunity,” said Gandhi Hospital Superintendent E.A. Ashok Kumar.

Between May and August, when H1N1 virus was ‘imported’ from other countries, it did not cause severe illness to patients. “These days, the patient’s condition is deteriorating within 24 hours. There is a definite shift in the genetic make up of the virus. It might have genetically changed after coming into contact with local influenza virus,” Superintendent of Chest Hospital S.V. Prasad.

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