'Swine flu under control'

Two days after a woman became the first victim of swine flu in Karnataka, the state government today reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting and said the pandemic was under control.

“Though H1N1 virus is spreading rapidly in the country, it is totally under control in Karnataka. There is no need for panic,” chief minister B S Yeddyurappa told reporters after the two-hour meeting.

The government enlisted some more hospitals to treat the affected, taking the number of designated institutions to 40 in the city, where a 26-year-old teacher succumbed to the virus on Wednesday.

Special isolation wards have been created in hospitals in every district and medical and paramedical staff trained to deal with any kind of emergency.

Claiming that the state had sufficient stock of Tamiflu tablets, Yeddyurappa said, “We are ready to procure more medicines and testing kits. There will be no resource crunch for this.” The state was purchasing 500 testing kits.

Karnataka has been in the forefront in launching preventive measures against swine flu and began screening of in-bound international passengers at Bengaluru International Airport since April 30.

Meanwhile, with a spurt in swine flu cases and the disease claiming its first victim in Karnataka, the state government has decided to ban entry of visitors to jails for a week as a precautionary measure. “We will be subjecting prisoners to medical checkup. We have decided not to allow visitors to jails for a week,” minister for prisons and horticulture Umesh Katti told reporters here today.