Tuberculosis surge in Karnataka

The Karnataka government’s active case finding initiative detected 837 new cases of tuberculosis in a single week starting July 17. The cases were reported from 11 districts. About 5% to 6% of the cases detected were children, state health department officials told the Times of India.

The highest number of 218 new cases was recorded in Belagavi while Ramanagara had fewest with 11 new cases. Bengaluru city reported 52 tuberculosis cases. Six Karnataka districts – Vijayapura, Bidar, Ballari, Belagavi, Bagalkot and Koppal – are among the 50 districts in the country that have been declared tuberculosis-prone.

Health officials went from door to door screening people for TB and confirmed these 837 new cases. An analysis of quarterly data from all government hospitals showed that the weekly average of new TB cases per district was between 20 and 25.

The active case finding survey focuses on pulmonary tuberculosis and identifying TB symptoms in rural areas and in high-risk places like slums, hostels, old age homes, prisons, asylums and night shelters in urban areas. Karnataka had recorded a total of 42,869 tuberculosis cases in 2016, of which 24,070 were new pulmonary tuberculosis cases. The death rate for overall tuberculosis cases was 6%.

Woman delivers baby on road outside Jaipur hospital

A woman has alleged that doctors at a government-run multi-specialty hospital in Jaipur failed to attend to her on time after which she was forced to deliver her child on the road outside the hospital on Friday night, according to news reports.

Ashoka Bai, who works as a construction labour, was expecting her fifth child and had been admitted at the community health centre at Sanganer in Jaipur. After the onset of labour, she had high blood pressure and other high risk symptoms and the communicy health centre doctors referred her to the nearby Jaipuria Hospital, a government-run hospital with multi-specialty units.

Ashoka Bai alleges that the doctor and the resident at the labour ward in Jaipuria Hospital did not attend to her for half an hour. They asked her to wait and told her that if she was in a hurry she could go to another hospital. She left the hospital with her family but ended up having the baby on the road outside. With the help of passers-by, the family called an ambulance and took Ashoka Bai back to community health centre, with her baby still attached to the umbilical cord.

Doctors at the community health centre said that they attended to her and that she is was recovering. Meanwhile, doctors at Jaipuria Hospital have denied telling Ashoka Bai to go to another hospital. They said that there were three women already in labour at the hospital and were attending to the patients by turn. The attending gynecologist further said that when she heard that Ashoka Bai had delivered on the road, she went ut to help her but was assaulted by members of her family who refused to take the new mother back into the hospital.

The women’s commission has launched an inquiry into the incident.

More swine flu across India

The number of swine flu cases and deaths continue to rise across India. Swine has affected 12,460 people and caused 600 deaths in the first half of 2017 (till July 9) as against 1,786 infections and 265 deaths in the whole of 2016.

Maharashtra alone has recorded 338 swine this year. Data from public health department shows that 108 deaths occurred in the past two months – 56 in Mumbai and Thane alone. The state government has set up a five-member committee to implement a plan to combat the outbreak, the Indian Express reported. The authorities have been directed to survey private hospitals to map new cases. The government has decided to allow private hospitals to set up isolation facilities to treat swine flu patients. At least 3,181 swine flu patients are presently confined to such isolation facilities.

Swine flu deaths have also been reported in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Surat. In Manipur, health officials are closely watching for signs of a swine flu outbreak in the flood-affected state which is now vulnerable to vector-borne diseases. One person was reported to have died of the disease last week.

The Hindustan Times also reported that public health experts have expressed alarm at the large number of young adults who are falling ill with swine flu. About 40% of the deaths and 50% of the infections are among people in the 20-50 years age group, with no co-morbid conditions. The disease usually affects more vulnerable people – young children, the elderly and people with pre-existing illnesses.