Virus Mutating but Still no Vaccine in India

According to this report by the Examiner, mutations are now occurring in the H1N1 Swine flu virus, making it more deadly. Mutations were seen to be occurring in Norway and Ukraine and now the mutations have reportedly spread to the United States as well, according to the report.

Although no such mutations have been observed or reported in India people are continuing to die from the Swine flu pandemic. “The Indian Government is monitoring the cases and so far no mutations have been recorded,” the Indian Council of Medical Research was quoted as having said here.

The world over, some 65 million people have received vaccinations against the Swine flu virus, however the vaccine is yet to reach India. It is anticipated that one vaccine will be ready by the end of December and two others in January. The clinical trials that were to be conducted by three foreign companies prior to being able to import the vaccines in India is still not complete.

In fact, only GlaxoSmithKline has got the go-ahead for their trials, while the other two companies Baxter and Novartis have not even received their final go ahead yet. It would seem that the usual red tape is holding up a process of getting vaccines into the country that should be expedited on an urgent basis.

Meanwhile, the death toll from swine flu in India has touched 575. The total number of people who have been reported as having tested positive for the viral infection have now crossed 18,000; a total of 18,198 positive cases have been reported in country till date. Maharashtra has reported a total of 223 deaths so far, however now it is Delhi that is consistently reporting the highest number of new infections where 4,592 people have tested positive, and recorded 78 new cases Monday.

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