Amid an alarming rise of flu cases across Karachi, the provincial health department has issued an alert, directing all officials concerned to take effective measures for the disease management, its monitoring and containment, it emerged on Sunday.

Sources said while influenza outbreaks were reported almost every year with the onset of winter, this season, the viral illness, identified as H1N1 (previously called swine flu) in many cases, seemed to be “more intense” in terms of its scale.

“Flu situation this season has been worst in comparison with recent years. I have been daily examining 30 to 40 patients for at least six weeks while a significant number of them are coming with fever, shortness of breath, cough and body aches,” shared Dr Altaf Hussain Khatri, senior general physician practicing in the old city area.