Gandhinagar: Gujarat seems to be among the worst affected states when it comes to swine flu. The state has recorded more than 70 deaths in the last forty days alone and there is no sign of the disease is losing its intensity either in Gujarat or anywhere else.
To be true the disease is spreading to new areas and on daily basis we are coming to know hospitals reporting swine virus patients in new locations. Merely two days ago we received the news that H1N1 virus has spread to even Kolkata.
But till now governments have failed to act decisively. Now there seems to be some efforts to try to contain the virus and its spread. Union Health Minister J P Nadda chaired a high level meeting to review preparedness of Gujarat for H1N1 and to discuss various health issues, at Gandhinagar.
Many top officials from the state including Nitinbhai Patel, Health Minister of Gujarat; Shankarbhai Chaudhari, MoS, Health, Gujarat and senior officers of the Gujarat Government including Shri Anil Mukim, Principal Secretary (Health) and J P Gupta, Commissioner (Health) were present at the meeting yesterday.
The Union health minister is reported to have reviewed the work being carried out for creating awareness regarding the preventive measures against H1N1. He expressed satisfaction that MPs, MLAs, local public representatives along with school teachers, anganwadi workers and ASHAs are supporting the awareness drive carried out in the 14 districts affected with H1N1.
Two states seem to have suffered the most from swine virus, Gujarat and Rajasthan. It was stated that the awareness drive has been further intensified with special screening OPDs for those suffering from influenza like illness (ILI) at places such as mass gatherings, house to house survey and contact tracing by trained health workers in four districts of Kutch, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara which share 3/4 of the burden of total cases in the state. More than 17 lakh persons have been covered under the drive. The Health Minister was informed that teams of health officials are visiting hospitals to verify facilities and adherence to treatment protocols and universal precautions for infection control.
To be true, serious efforts seemed to be completely absent. The Health Minister also reviewed the preparedness in terms of number of testing kits, personal protective equipment, labs, anti-virals and isolation wards. The state officers presented that Gujarat has state of the art diagnostic facilities. They are conducting tests free of charge for those suspected of H1N1, seeking treatment either from the government or private health facilities. At present, five diagnostic labs can test samples; total of 1707 samples have been tested this year, it was informed. In addition to the cases from the state, it was stated that as many as 90 patients from neighbouring states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Silvassa exhibiting symptoms of H1N1 have been tested and treated. To cater to the need more than 471 beds for treatment of indoor patients have been kept reserved in various secondary and tertiary health care centers in state. Nadda assured all necessary assistance from the Centre to manage H1N1.
In the meantime latest reports suggest that the swine flu toll in Maharashtra and Rajasthan has reached 100 and 40 respectively. According to reports, six deaths have been recorded in Mumbai due to the H1N1 virus outbreak while five more casualties were reported in Rajasthan on Tuesday. A total of 205 swine flu cases have been recorded in Maharashtra, according to the state authorities, while 49 fresh cases were reported in Delhi with the total number of cases due to the disease going up to 488 this year.
