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| Bengal gears up to tackle Swine Flu |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Aug 11, 2009, 00:49 IST |
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Fresh cases of Swine Flu (H1N1 virus) were reported today even as state health department officials prepare to issue advisory to educational institutions and take preventive measures. The number of Swine Flu-affected people in West Bengal reached 10 on Monday.
Confirming this, Tapas Kumar Sen, the officer in-charge of Swine Flu monitoring cell, said, “We are monitoring the situation. So far, 10 cases have been reported. We will soon issue a circular based on the guidelines drawn by the Centre and send it to schools, colleges, universities and private education institutes.”
In order to spread awareness, the department plans to issue notices and advertisements shortly. The idea behind the special advisory is to build awareness and prepare them to tackle a possible outbreak of Swine Flu among students.
The move was triggered by the surge in suspected cases among students across India and after a standard II girl in the city tested positive. The state issued a revised guideline on Saturday on health department’s website. As part of the revised guideline, all district and sub-divisional hospitals including health centres, will henceforth screen suspected patients. Samples will be collected at ID Hospital, medical colleges in Kolkata, district hospitals in Bankura, Midnapore, Burdwan and North Bengal Medical College. In Kolkata, confirmed cases would be admitted to ID Hospital in Beliaghata and the samples would be sent to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Disease, Kolkata. Eight persons have been admitted to ID Hospital while two are under observation.
Among the suspected cases, there are two doctors (one from the ID Hospital and the other was involved in the screening clinic at the airport) and a family of four who arrived from Singapore on Saturday morning. The Government has decided to set up three special influenza testing laboratories in the city – one each at Beliaghata ID Hospital, RG Kar College and Hospital and NRS Medical College and Hospital.
Negative cases will be informed over telephone or by other means, positive cases will be asked to report at appropriate hospitals and provided full treatment, said Sen.
Go to school, don’t party, says Azad
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media on Monday after a meeting of the ministry attended by Cabinet Secretary that the Government had decided to import an additional 22,000 testing kits for H1N1 besides buying two crore tablets of Tamiflu. The regent needed for testing is available with a single company in US and hence these kits have to be imported to conduct tests in India. He said that the Indian Council for Medical Research was working on creating an indigenous testing kit which could bring down the testing costs considerably.
At present a single positive test costs Rs 10,000 while a negative test costs Rs 5000. So far the Government has been paying for the tests and has conducted 4,000 tests. There were just two testing centres in the beginning in the of a month and a half of the spread of the disease, the Government has introduced testing for H1N1 in 16 more labs. Azad said the Government would not hesitate from importing vaccines if some other country readies one prior to the vaccines beingprepared in India.
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