Temp swing puts citizens in sick bay

Mumbai: The nip in the air coupled with variation in day and night temperatures has led to increased cases of common cold and fever in the city, while leaving people vulnerable to various types of flu infection, say infectious disease experts.

According to health experts, the virus thrives in fluctuating temperatures due to which, cases of high fever, cough, sore throat, body ache and stomach ailments have increased.

A senior health official said that the number of patients is increasing as they are complaining of high fever, cough, sore throat and body ache and to him, it sounds like swine flu and they have been asked to give their swap for testing and that reports from laboratories are awaited.

“As the temperature fluctuates, civic hospitals are seeing a rise in patients suffering from viral infection and stomach ailments,” said the official.

Dr Om Srivastava, an infectious diseases’ specialist, said, “The process of treating such types of infection is taking one to two weeks as compared to the cases that we were witnessing a month ago. Various types of flu are being seen nowadays. A plausible explanation for this could be the antigenic shift in viruses, where the surface of the virus undergoes minimal change, resulting in change and presentation.”