'India well-prepared to handle respiratory illnesses; no unusual surge in no. of influenza cases'

In view of the upcoming influenza season coinciding with winters, a high-level review meeting was held under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Tuesday.

It was highlighted at the meeting that the country is well-prepared to handle respiratory illnesses and that all systems currently show no signs of an unusual surge in the number of influenza cases.

Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Sunita Sharma, Joint Secretary (Public Health) Vandana Jain, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director Professor (Dr) Ranjan Das and experts from the Disaster Management (DM) Cell and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) participated in the meeting.

Srivastava briefed Nadda that India typically experiences two seasonal peaks of influenza -- during August-October (monsoon peak) and January-March (winter peak).

Recalling the significant rise in the number of seasonal influenza cases in 2014-15, Nadda sought an update on the present situation and enquired on whether the currently-circulating strains show any variations from historical trends.

Officials from the NCDC and IDSP informed the minister that influenza activity remains low, both globally and within India. Surveillance indicates that the circulating strains continue to be the usual seasonal variants -- H3N2 and Influenza B (Victoria) -- with a small proportion of H1N1.

Nadda was also apprised of the near-real-time surveillance mechanisms, including the IDSP's Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) monitoring network, AI-driven event-based surveillance through media scanning and the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) sentinel surveillance for respiratory pathogens.

All systems currently show no signs of an unusual surge in the number of influenza cases.

Das informed the meeting that the NCDC will convene a two-day national Chintan Shivir on influenza later this month, involving key ministries, departments and state governments, to comprehensively review influenza preparedness and plan the way forward.

Nadda appreciated the preparedness measures underway and asked the officials to review the influenza preparedness with all state nodal officers and ensure the readiness of all Centre-run hospitals.

He directed that the review of the preparedness in all district hospitals and medical colleges be completed within the next fortnight.

The minister also said an advisory should be issued to all states and Union territories in this regard and asked for regular mock-drills to be conducted at the health facilities.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)