Dimapur, August 28 (EMN): Following Eastern Mirror’s revelation of doctors detecting a case of swine flu in one of the patients admitted to a hospital in Dimapur in our Monday edition, the state health authorities have issued a public advisory.The directorate of Health and Family Welfare on Monday stated that ‘Influenza A H1N1 virus (formerly known as swine flu)’ was no longer a “novel (new) virus” but considered as ‘a common flu which is seasonal and self limiting’. This ‘seasonal influenza’, according to the health department, had caused pandemic in 2009 and continues to circulate as a seasonal influenza virus causing outbreak/sporadic cases in different parts of the country. “While most of Influenza A H1N1 cases will be mild, persons with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, heart diseases, cancer and other immune-compromised conditions, adults more than 65 years of age, children under 5 years of age and pregnant women are at higher risk for acquiring sever (sic) illness, mortality due to Influenza A H1N1 among the said high risk groups can be prevented by early diagnosis and prompt treatment”, it stated.
