India well-prepared to handle respiratory illnesses: Nadda

Tue, 02 December 2025

20:57

Union Health Minister J P Nadda/File image

In view of the upcoming influenza season coinciding with winters, a high-level review meeting was held under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Tuesday.

It was highlighted at the meeting that the country is well-prepared to handle respiratory illnesses and that all systems currently show no signs of an unusual surge in the number of influenza cases.

Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, director general of health services Dr Sunita Sharma, joint secretary (public health) Vandana Jain, National Centre for Disease Control director professor (Dr) Ranjan Das and experts from the Disaster Management Cell and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme participated in the meeting.

Srivastava briefed Nadda that India typically experiences two seasonal peaks of influenza -- during August-October (monsoon peak) and January-March (winter peak).

Recalling the significant rise in the number of seasonal influenza cases in 2014-15, Nadda sought an update on the present situation and enquired on whether the currently-circulating strains show any variations from historical trends.

Officials from the NCDC and IDSP informed the minister that influenza activity remains low, both globally and within India. Surveillance indicates that the circulating strains continue to be the usual seasonal variants -- H3N2 and Influenza B (Victoria) -- with a small proportion of H1N1.

Nadda was also apprised of the near-real-time surveillance mechanisms, including the IDSP's Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) monitoring network, AI-driven event-based surveillance through media scanning and the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) sentinel surveillance for respiratory pathogens. -- PTI

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