The Hindu : Front Page : 16 more laboratories to be activated to tackle Swine flu

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Tuesday, Jun 09, 2009
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16 more laboratories to be activated to tackle Swine flu

Aarti Dhar

"Government worried about the situation, but there is no reason for panic"

– PHOTO: AFP

BEYOND BORDERS: Pakistani children queue up for a medical check by Indian doctors for any symptoms of swine flu on their arrival in India from Pakistan on Monday at the international Attari railway station 35 km from Amritsar.

NEW DELHI: With the number of A (H1N1) influenza cases showing a steady increase over the past few days due to human to human transmission, the Union government on Monday decided to activate 16 more laboratories and further strengthen screening at the international airports.

It is also learnt that the government will write to the Indian missions abroad to impress upon their respective governments to screen passengers at the departure point itself and anyone detected with influenza symptoms be prevented from travelling.

“We are worried about the situation but there is no reason for panic,” Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here after a meeting that reviewed the flu situation in the country. He said the government was equipped to deal with the situationany outbreak in the country.

Mr. Azad said 16 laboratories across the country would be activated within a week for testing A (H1N1) cases. As of now, only two laboratories — the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Delhi and the National Virology Institute (NIV) in Pune — had facilities for testing such cases. There was enough stock of Tamiflu.

The number of positive A (H1N1) cases has touched 11, with two cases reported from the National Capital. Two cases were reported from Coimbatore and the remaining from Hyderabad.

States have been advised on clinical management, infection control and laboratory support. Stockpiling of Tamiflu was raised to 10 million and every State and Union Territory given a stock of 2,000 capsules.

Two hundred ventilators have been procured and distributed to Central government hospitals and State hospitals in vulnerable States.

Initially, those who tested positive had travelled to the affected countries, but the cases being reported now are the ones who have contracted infection. Test reports of four suspected patients, one each in Bangalore and Mumbai and two in Delhi are awaited. Mr. Azad said the government had decided to issue another advisory asking people to avoid unnecessary travel to the affected countries and approach the public health authorities in case of any flu-like symptoms.

Apart from intensifying screening at airports, the authorities would also provide revised voluntary declaration forms that would make tracing people easier, particularly those from the affected countries. So far five lakh forms had been printed and 15 lakh passengers screened.

It was decided at the meeting to set up rapid action teams. At present, there was only one such team at the national level and it had left for Hyderabad.

There was need to have many more trained personnel to deal with the situation, particularly at the State and district levels. The master trainers have been asked to impart training to a large number of health workers.

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