Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Influenza A H1N1 virus has claimed over 100 lives so far in India and doctors say unlike other affected countries, the victims here have been mostly young people. What does that mean in terms of immunity against the virus?
Pune has seen the most deaths from the H1N1 flu pandemic in India. A latest Health Ministry study states that like the rest of the world, most of the casualties in the country are in the age group of 15 to 45 years and only 10 per cent of the deaths have been in the above 60 age bracket.
This is one big difference with the seasonal flu that kills about 500,000 people worldwide every year, most of them senior citizens. The theory is, they have immunity, because of exposure to a virus similar to this new one.
A doctor in the Community Medicine Department, AIIMS, Dr Bir Singh says, "The reasons are that elderly people may have developed some kind of resistance because of exposure to similar influenza virus in the past."
According to the latest H1N1 survey by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control:
- 51 per cent deaths worldwide have occurred in the age group 20 to 49
- Only 12 per cent deaths have been reported from the age group 60 and above
- The Centre for Diseases Control in US finds only 1 per cent people over 65 have been infected
Health experts alike are hoping that people who have cleared the H1N1 infection now, will be immune to the virus even it comes back in a second wave.
Doctor of Internal Medicine at Apollo, Dr Suranjit Chaterjee says, "If you are exposed to the same strain of H1N1 then obviously your body fights it out very well and immunity is there. But there is a probability that the strain may mutate and once the strain mutates, then your immunity will not help very much."
The World Health Organisation predicts that by the end of this pandemic, some 2 billion people will have been infected. Something called Herd Immunity is expected to kick in then, that is, the virus should stop spreading among people.
By then 900 million people in India and 5 billion people worldwide would have developed immunity to the virus.
With reports that the virus is turning severe in 15 per cent of the cases worldwide, prevention is your best defence - at least until a vaccine is available.
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