Shaun
“An advisory has been given that all SARI cases must be tested (for HMPV) and the kits for testing will be sent to the states,” a health official said.
All states have been advised to step up surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) to identify any surge in respiratory illnesses in the wake of the spread of the largely benign Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) in China.
Union health ministry officials gave the directions to step up vigilance on SARI and ILI cases during a meeting of officials of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), a health official in Karnataka said. “An advisory has been given that all SARI cases must be tested (for HMPV) and the kits for testing will be sent to the states,” the official said.
“The Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Karnataka, has analysed the data of prevailing respiratory infections like common cold, ILI and SARI within the state and there is no significant increase in the reported number of cases in December 2024 compared to the previous year,” the Karnataka health department said Monday.
An IDSP review of all states on Monday also reported no major surge in respiratory infections in the country. However, it indicated nine HMPV cases were detected in India in December with zero mortalities. This occurred before the reporting on January 6 of two new cases of HMPV among two infants in Bengaluru and one case in Ahmedabad.
An incidence of 1.3 per cent for HMPV was reported in December 2024 in the country following testing of 714 suspected cases. The nine cases reported in December included four from Puducherry, two from Odisha, and one each from Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, with all patients recovering.
In the three cases reported so far in January, one three-month-old infant in Bengaluru has been discharged while an eight-month-old is recovering.
In the Ahmedabad case, the patient has recovered and has been discharged.
According to the IDSP data, “there has been no unusual surge” in ILI or SARI cases in the country. The IDSP will monitor ILI and SARI trends in the coming days and state and district units under the disease surveillance programme have been asked to do likewise.
