A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF CLINICAL OUTCOME OF PANDEMIC SWINE FLU AND SEASONAL INFLUENZA PATIENTS WITH PREDISPOSING FACTORS IN ICU OF SWINE FLU WARD IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
Pandemic and seasonal influenza could be worst in patients with underlying predisposing factors, especially in patients with respiratory and renal disorder. Therefore, rapid identification of influenza outbreak is important not only for timely therapeutic intervention but also for preventing the complications. A retrospective study was conducted in patients with seasonal and pandemic influenza A (H1N1) infection with different predisposing factors admitted to Intensive Care Unit in a tertiary care hospital of Northern India, to analyze for correlation between severity of influenza infection and predisposing factors during outbreak from September to October 2010. Throat swab and nasal swab specimens were collected from suspected patients and RT-PCR was performed to confirm for swine flu and seasonal influenza. Out of 34 cases, 17 were true positive for swine flu and rest positive for seasonal influenza A. Most of the suspected patients had history of pulmonary and cardiovascular disease (58.82%) with positivity of swine flu was more in patients with respiratory tract infection and renal failure (17.64%) in whom maximum death rate was reported. In blood investigation 76.47% patients had elevated s.creatinine and low hemoglobin, 23% had elevated total Leukocyte count. Obesity was another major risk factor (82.33%). There were 4 deaths out of 17 positive swine flu cases with case fatality rate of 23.03%.