Nagpur: After a “lull’ in the year 2016 since its outbreak in 2009, the dreaded Swine Flu raised its ugly head in 2017 with vengeance by claiming 104 lives till now in Nagpur division. In 2016, just 8 positive cases were detected out of which two patients had died. But in 2017, the figure jumped to 658 positive cases with 104 deaths till mid October.
This disturbing information was provided by Public Health Department to an RTI query posed by activist Abhay Kolarkar.
According to Kolarkar, in the year 2015 the number of positive cases registered were 790 and 178 people died. In 2016, the number has drastically came down. Only eight positive cases were detected and2 persons died. In2017, the H1N1 virus as is Swine Flu is known, the disease made its presence felt as 658 positive cases were recorded and the death toll stood at 104 till mid October.
The months of September and October proved to be disastrous as far as Swine Flu cases and deaths were concerned in 2015 and 2017. In 2015, 26 cases were registered in September and 117 in October. In 2017, 229 and 127 cases tested positive for swine flu in September and October respectively. In September, 34 people died while in October, 23 people lost their lives.
Year-wise swine flu cases from March 2010 to October 2017:
