Diarrhea, TB More Deadly in India Than Swine Flu

Home Forums Polo’s Rabble Diarrhea, TB More Deadly in India Than Swine Flu

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    • #3464
      mikethehack
      Participant

      By Saikat Chatterjee and Arush Chopra

      Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — Tuberculosis and diarrhea-related diseases kill more people each day in India than the total number worldwide who have died from the H1N1 virus. Don’t be alarmed by swine flu, authorities say.

      Mumbai and New Delhi residents rushed to purchase face masks after India recorded its first swine flu death on Aug. 3, prompting the federal government to advise the general public against buying them and creating a shortage for health-care workers. Daily media coverage of the fatalities, currently at 20, prompted India yesterday to ask broadcasters to exercise restraint and not create panic, Times of India reported.

      “People intuitively overestimate the risk of rare events and underestimate the risk of common events,” S.J. Habayeb, the World Health Organization’s representative to India, said by e- mail. “This has happened with the novel H1N1 influenza virus.”

      Data point to low virulence of H1N1 compared with diseases such as avian influenza, deadly in three out of five cases. Swine flu has killed about 1,500 people since the outbreak began in April, less than 1 percent of the case total, the latest WHO tally showed. An average 1,250 people die each day in India from diarrhea-related diseases and 1,000 from tuberculosis, according to a 2006 report by the Geneva-based organization.

      The mortality rate from swine flu “is quite low,” William Aldis, assistant professor of global health at Thailand’s Thammasat University, said by phone today from Sylva, North Cina. “It’s such a joke when you compare it to anything else that people choose not to worry about.”

      Schools, Malls Shut

      Mumbai, India’s commercial hub, closed schools for seven days and malls and cinemas for three from yesterday, ignoring federal government advice. Mumbai followed neighboring Pune city, home to the most swine flu fatalities in India, in shutting educational institutions.

      “What’s the point of closing schools?” said N.K. Pandey, president-elect of the Association of Surgeons in India, in New Delhi. “There are thousands of people traveling each day in Mumbai local trains. Is the government going to shut that too?”

      The government Aug. 10 recommended that states encourage people with flu-like symptoms to avoid public places and not close schools.

      There won’t be sufficient mask supplies to meet demand if everyone starts buying them, R.K. Srivastava, director general of health services, told reporters yesterday. He advised people who aren’t at direct risk of being infected to avoid buying as public demand is creating a shortage for doctors and nurses.

      ‘Anxiety’

      “It’s just the anxiety that is driving everybody nuts, including me,” said Amrit Daswani. “I don’t think I have it. I just want to rule out the possibility.”

      Daswani, an 18-year-old student in Mumbai, is among the hordes of people that are crowding the designated swine flu treatment facilities for a diagnosis, adding pressure to the already overstretched government-owned hospitals.

      Swine flu was first reported in North America in April. In India, the virus has spread after being found on May 13 in a 23- year-old passenger who arrived in the southern city of Hyderabad from New York.

      More than 1,200 people have tested positive for swine flu in the South Asian nation. Of the 20 who have died, 14 are from Mumbai and Pune, according to the health ministry.

      To contact the reporters on this story: Saikat Chatterjee in New Delhi at schatterjee4@bloomberg.net; Arush Chopra in Mumbai achopra16@bloomberg.net.

    • #10547
      ROB
      Keymaster

      I think regular flu kills more people than swine flu too. Total beat up.

      But a few perfectly healthy people with no pre-existing medical conditions have dies down here. You northern hemisphere types are in for a nasty winter.

    • #10548
      Stiv
      Member

      @ROB wrote:

      I think regular flu kills more people than swine flu too. Total beat up.

      But a few perfectly healthy people with no pre-existing medical conditions have dies down here. You northern hemisphere types are in for a nasty winter.

      I’m SO not looking forward to it….more than usual, the issue is going to be how this flu mutates and comes back into the general populace.

      Our institution is pretending to act calm but I have a feeling the infectious control group is soiling themselves over this.

      During the winter our ER is usually full with the lower social stratus because of colds and the flu, I can’t even imagine what this is going to be like if this new version starts running through this city.

      I’ll be sure to give you all updates, and now that they’re saying smoking helps with the inflammation I think I’ll start back up again!

      Best,
      Stiv

    • #10549
      ROB
      Keymaster

      Hey, it’ll be a good time to test out your fantastic new healthcare system! ;)

    • #10550
      Lee Ridley
      Keymaster

      I may be proved wrong, in time, but I think this virus will just fade away and the big catastrophe that everyone is predicting will never happen.

      Some are reporting that it has already peaked in the UK, and that’s with only a hundred or so dead; nothing like the thousands that die every year from the regular seasonal virus.

      Many are reporting that they had swine flu without even realising it; it was that mild.

      Nothing but sensational, over-reporting by the tabloids. Just see if I’m right.

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