Uncommon flu goes viral in city

Doctors grapple with a severe flu-like strain; dengue combines with typhoid to make patients suffer more

The city's health officials, already grappling with a spurt in dengue and malaria cases over the past few weeks, have a stupefying problem on hand as the common viral flu has taken a rather aggressive form.

The spectrum of virals and similar infections this season have become a reason to worry as hospitals have reported that patients afflicted with the illnesses were showing severe symptoms and longer recovery period.

"The old adage that any fever beyond 4-6 days is usually not a viral has taken a beating. We have now begun to question that theory, considering the disease profile of the patients we are getting," Dr S Chatterjee, senior consultant in Apollo Hospital's internal medicine department, said.

The recovery time, doctors said, has gone up to 10 to 12 days and the symptoms also varied.

"We have a range of symptoms from fever and persistent joint pain to symptoms resembling encephalitis, meningitis and hepatitis. We are calling them viral-like diseases because most are showing negative test results for all identified viruses. Even the atypical pathogen profile, a test that diagnoses virals like influenza and H1N1 outside the spectrum of dengue, chikungunya and viral hepatitis, is not showing positive results," Dr Vikas Ahluwalia of Max Hospital, Saket, said.

In such a situation, doctors put these diseases in the broad category of "viral-like symptoms" - meaning the bug cannot be properly identified.

The symptoms are severe because of the longer recovery period. Doctors said patients, particularly the elderly and diabetics, are showing symptoms characteristic of the H1N1 virus such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in which the lungs get inflamed.

Dr Atul Gogia of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said: "The viruses mutate over time and these are becoming resistant to anti-virals just like the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We have patients on ventilator support and have seen deaths from the flu-like symptoms. These patients had tested negative for all notifiable viral diseases such as dengue and malaria."

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