New Delhi, Aug 7 (Inditop.com) Rajan Gupta returned after a business trip to the US recently and rushed to see his psychiatrist the very next day as he feared he had swine flu, the viral disease that has killed a 14-year-old girl and affected over 600 people in India.
Fifty-year-old Gupta is not the only one. Call it fear psychosis or hysteria, but general practitioners in the capital are not the only ones reporting a sudden spurt in patients. Psychiatrists are dealing with the problem too with patients convinced they have swine flu, even if they don’t have any symptoms, knocking at their doors — this trend has become more pronounced after the first swine flu death in the country in Pune on Monday.
“Even those who have a common cold or seasonal flu due to weather change think they have swine flu. And those with psychological problems or a phobia are the worst impacted,” said M.S. Bhatia, head of the psychiatry department at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital.
Bhatia said he has seen a number of cases in the past few weeks where people think they have the virus. Most people, he added, don’t know the difference between a common flu and swine flu but imagine they have it.
Like the 55-year-old man who came to him because he was afraid of flying and feared he would get the H1N1 influenza.
“He wanted to meet his son in Singapore. But since he had heard that those going abroad are getting the influenza, he refused to go despite his wife’s plea. We had to really counsel him,” Bhatia told Inditop.
“After the death of the (Pune) girl, the panic level has gone up. It is bound to happen as it is a natural worry. We advise them and give them medication. In some cases, we refer them for tests so that the fear eases out after they find they don’t have it,” he added.
Samir Parikh, consulting psychiatrist at the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Max Healthcare, said the hysteria was based on fear psychosis.
“It is natural, people are worried about their health. People should be clearly told how they should handle the situation and should be given the right information. People need to be given assurance they would get prompt treatment,” Parikh told Inditop.
Monica Chib, consultant psychologist at the Indraprastha Apollo hospital, is also seeing a number of panic-struck people who imagine they have the flu following the death of 14-year-old Reeda Shaikh.
“Actually the swine flu death in Pune has created a fear and people are naturally worried, which was not so earlier. Such kind of reaction is expected,” she added.
There is no reason for panic, say doctors.
“In India, the number of swine flu cases are few, compared to the West. The problem is that swine flu symptoms are the same as seasonal flu,” said Randeep Guleria, head of medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
He said doctors need to look out for danger signs — normal fever persisting for more than five days, breathing difficulty, cough with sputum and blood, chest pain, drowsiness, low blood pressure and nails turning blue.
But for some any flu must be swine flu.
Anjali Baruah, who works in the capital, said her parents back home in Assam are paranoid and making her nervy too.
“My father called me last night and read out a whole newspaper clipping on measures to be taken against getting swine flu. A little later, he called me again to tell me to carry a handkerchief and cover my nose and mouth while travelling in public transport.
“At the slightest indication of a cold, he asked me to go to a government hospital and get myself tested — and not to forget to carry my own disposable syringe!. He has become so paranoid and is making me too.”
