Clinical - epidemiological profile and diagnosis of Influenza A H1N1 cases by real time RTPCR at a tertiary care institute of India: the war is not over yet

Authors

  • Shailpreet K. Sidhu Department of Microbiology, Govt Medical College, Amritsar, India
  • Kanwardeep Singh Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar, India
  • Pushpa Devi Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India
  • Manpreet Kaur Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India
  • Nacchatarjit Singh Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India
  • Maninder Kaur Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India
  • Sita Malhotra Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2016.3.3.19

Keywords:

Influenza A H1N1, Real Time RT-PCR

Abstract

Background: Influenza A virus is a common human pathogen that has caused serious respiratory illness and death over the past century. In April 2009, WHO declared pandemic influenza A H1N1 public health emergency of international concern. India is reeling under the worst H1N1 influenza outbreak with over 18,000 affected cases and over 1000 deaths by the year 2015. Methods: The present study was conducted to find the clinical and epidemiological profile of H1N1 influenza A cases and a real time RT-PCR was standardized and evaluated for the detection of H1N1 influenza A virus in suspected cases admitted in a tertiary care hospital of northern India. Results: Of the total 184 clinical samples tested, 48(26.0%) samples were found to be positive for influenza A H1N1 virus by real time RT-PCR. The highest percentage of cases was in the age group of 40-55 years followed by the 20-40 years. The main clinical symptoms were fever(95.8%), breathlessness(77.0%) , cough(68.7%) and sore throat (56.2%).The mortality rate of cases admitted with H1N1 infection was 52.0%. Conclusion: The mutational behavior of H1N1 has been a major future challenge in the part of pharmacotherapy. Rapid and sensitive diagnostic methods like real time RT-PCR increase the capability to detect, understand and assess new viruses for pandemic risk and to track their international spread.

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Author Biographies

Shailpreet K. Sidhu, Department of Microbiology, Govt Medical College, Amritsar, India

Assistant Professor,

Kanwardeep Singh, Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar, India

Associate Prof.,

Pushpa Devi, Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India

Professor & Head, 

Manpreet Kaur, Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India

Research Scientist,

Nacchatarjit Singh, Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India

Research Assistant, 

Maninder Kaur, Dept of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar ,India

Senior Resident , 

Sita Malhotra, Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar, India

Associate Prof., 

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Published

2016-09-30

How to Cite

Shailpreet K. Sidhu, Kanwardeep Singh, Pushpa Devi, Manpreet Kaur, Nacchatarjit Singh, Maninder Kaur, & Sita Malhotra. (2016). Clinical - epidemiological profile and diagnosis of Influenza A H1N1 cases by real time RTPCR at a tertiary care institute of India: the war is not over yet. Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences, 3(3), 120–125. https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2016.3.3.19

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