Swine flu claims 45 lives in Madhya Pradesh

At least one person is dying everyday of swine flu in Madhya Pradesh, even after distribution of 23,000 vaccines and thousands of Tamiflu doses.

The failure of government to control swine flu, also known as H1N1 virus, in the state is likely to trigger the epidemic in neighbouring states, as shortage of vaccines, preventive methods, absconding medicos and improper publicity have claimed as many as 45 lives so far.

Most of the hospitals have no isolated wards and infected patients are being admitted in the general ward. A 20-days old child died of swine flu yesterday.

Official data is available for eight locations — Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain, Damoh, Morena and Harda — where 42 patients died of swine flu so far. The government is coming up with updated lists, with names and addresses of patients who are diagnosed positive. As many as 168 patients are detected positive by various hospitals, including private hospitals, and the number is rising each day.

“Only few companies have launched vaccines in the market, which are 60 per cent effective and only scheduled X-category medical stores can sell these vaccines. They can be administered with proper tests by expert medical practitioners,” said a market source.

The state government data said the people in the state have consumed 23,000 vaccines so far and have provided 10,000 more to service providers. However, experts on condition of anonymity, said: “The vaccine is not effective if the virus mutates itself. Moreover, a patient can be infected again, even if he has been exposed to the virus earlier.”

The alarming rate of the epidemic is evident from the fact that of the total 33 patients screened yesterday, 10 were found positive. “We have made all arrangments, letters have been issued to the district collectors and there is a partial drop in the cases. We will soon have it under control,” said a government spokesperson.

State government has also identified a few private hospitals for treatment of the disease, but death toll is rising at government hospitals.