Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has overrun the entire globe since its initial appearance in China in December 2019 [1]. The first case of SARS-CoV-2 in India was recorded on January 30, 2020, and Indian officials imposed a country-wide lockdown in March 2020 to stop the virus from spreading [2]. In India, seasonal influenza is caused by a number of circulating influenza viruses, including Influenza-A H1N1, H3N2, and Influenza B. Type A influenza viruses are the only flu viruses known to generate pandemics, as they undergo both antigenic drift and shift, whereas influenza type B viruses only undergo antigenic drift. Between April 2020 and July 2021, only 2,521 influenza A (H3N2) virus cases were recorded from 57 countries, the majority of which came from India (445), Laos (268), Bangladesh (209), and Pakistan (209) During the same time, the bulk of A (H1N1) cases were reported from Ghana (235), Togo (226), the United States (170), and Russia (165). Cases of B/Victoria were mostly reported from China, but some of its clades were also found in Kenya, the United States, Brazil, and Japan [3]. In 2022, according to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the number of H1N1 cases in whole India is 20, with 1 death, whereas no recorded cases were found from West Bengal (as of 30th April 2022). In 2020, there were 2,752 cases with 44 deaths, compared to 28,798 cases and 1,218 deaths in 2019, the penultimate year before the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak (as of 30th April 2022) (https://ncdc.gov.in/showfile.php?lid=280). Seasonal influenza kills an estimated 2.90-6.50 lakhs people worldwide each year [World Health Organization. (2017, December 13)].

Keywords: Asthma; Anti-Asthmatics drugs; Dental caries