Study: age group of 14-44 yrs worst hit

Though we had said that the most common symptom was fever,it is now clear that most of the cases had very bad cough and breathlessness. This means by the time they came to the hospital,most of them had already got pneumonia, said Dr S K Srivastava,Director General Health Services.

This makes it all the more important for people to get checked by a doctor for symptoms. If they dont get better in a day or two and have high fever and other symptoms,they should report to the designated health facility, he said.

The study was conducted by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of the Health Ministry. The deaths were in the most productive age group of 14-44 years. Other groups had very little mortality, Dr Srivastava added.

The more recent data about 49 deaths from August 3 to 23 shows that while 18 patients died a day after hospitalisation,12 each died within two and three days. The remaining deaths occurred after three days of hospitalisation. The study also shows that while 26 of those who died in this period were male,23 were females.