Four in 10 households have had one or more individuals in their family suffering from health conditions such as persistent cough, congestion, fatigue, body ache and fever in the past 30 days, a survey by LocalCircles, amid a spurt of adenovirus and other viral infections, has found.
LocalCircles received inputs from over 1,000 households in the city. While 63% respondents were men, 37% were women.
While 13% of the respondents have had one family member unwell with one or more health conditions; 13% have had 2-3 individuals unwell; another 13% indicated that four or more family members have been unwell.
ON-GROUND SITUATION
Doctors on the ground told LocalCircles that school children are affected by adenovirus and most are being managed through OPDs. Feedback also indicated that 70-80% of intensive care cases are currently related to adenovirus.
For many families, doctors said that RT-PCR is expensive and in some cases a Comprehensive Respiratory Panel test is advocated, which is even more expensive at Rs 4,000-5,000. Doctors have also reported that ECMO, which saved lives during the Covid pandemic, is back in use again at the hospital.
WHAT IS ADENOVIRUS?
According to a report by Cleveland Clinic, adenoviruses are a type of virus that can infect your body in a variety of ways, ranging from mild to severe. Adenovirus infections mostly affect the respiratory system. These diseases might mimic the symptoms of a regular cold or flu. Most viral infections are mild and simply require symptom alleviation.
Adenovirus infections occur all year, but typically peak in the winter and early spring.
WHO GETS INFECTED BY ADENOVIRUS?
Adenoviruses can cause illness in persons of all ages, most common in those under the age of five. Adenoviruses are frequently disseminated in daycares among newborns and young toddlers. Kids are also more prone to put objects in their mouths and wash their hands less regularly, says the report by Cleveland Clinic.
Adenoviruses can spread in adults in crowded circumstances and the virus is also frequently transmitted in hospitals and nursing homes.
THE SYMPTOMS
According to the US Centre for Diseases Control (CDC), there are a number of symptoms of adenovirus:
- Common cold or flu-like symptoms
- Fever
- Sore throat
- Acute bronchitis (inflammation of the airways of the lungs, sometimes called a “chest cold”)
- Pneumonia (infection of the lungs)
- Pink eye (conjunctivitis)
- Acute gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach or intestines causing diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain)
Less common symptoms of adenovirus infection, according to CDC, include:
- Bladder inflammation or infection
- Neurological disease (conditions that affect the brain and spinal cord)
LocalCircles, a community social media platform, enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions and enables the government to make policies that are citizen and small business-centric.
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