Swine flu detected in female at Nishtar Hospital

MULTAN: The Nishtar Hospital doctors detected the first case of swine flu in a female patient and shifted her to the isolation ward here on Tuesday. Doctors have sent the blood samples of patient Abidi Bibi of Multan to the laboratory.

A health department spokesperson Prof Dr M Ali Khan said the H1N1 virus was confirmed in the blood samples. The first case of swine flu was reported in December last. A total of 122 H1N1 positive carriers were admitted to the hospital last year and out of them, 43 expired.

The symptoms of H1N1 are fever, chills, cough, and body aches which last for eight days on an average. Some symptoms may continue longer than that, said the health officials. This flu is often confused with the common cold because of the similarity in symptoms. Flu symptoms also include fever, cold sweats, aches in the body, headache, exhaustion, and even some gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, they added.