Govt gearing up to arrest its spread Hyderabad: Swine flu scare, which is spreading at a steady pace in Telangana, has claimed 20 ...
Govt gearing up to arrest its spread
Hyderabad: Swine flu scare, which is spreading at a steady pace in Telangana, has claimed 20 lives as on Friday. All precautions were being taken to prevent the spread of swine flu. Vaccines and medicines have been dispatched to all District Area Hospitals. So far, as many as 249 cases of swine flu were reported from across the State.
They include 142 cases in Hyderabad, 60 in Ranga Reddy, eleven in Mahbubnagar, five in Medak and one case each in Adilabad and Khammam district, informed Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) Director Dr L Narendranath. Fifteen patients out of 64 tested were proved positive on Thursday.
Stating that the Central team has observed that the impact of swine flu is on the decline, Dr Narendranath advised people to take all precautions. The media persons are being trained for the safe and effective prevention of swine flu. Since the isolation ward at Gandhi Hospital was getting overcrowded, the authorities have decided to shift some of the patients to Fever Hospital.
Dr Narendranath advised general public against going in for vaccination, stating that the H1N1 virus keeps on changing its genetic (DNA) constitution frequently. He revealed that the vaccines available in the city are effective against only three of H1N1 variants.
The NIMS director referred to a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline, which says that the immunity to swine flu on taking vaccine develops only after three weeks of time. He, however, added that vaccination is mandatory for the doctors and paramedical staff treating the swine flu patients.
Dr Narendranath also cautioned that using the prophylactic Tamiflu tablets without having swine flu can prove dangerous. Responding to a query as to why the swine flu virus is virulent only in Telangana, Dr Narendranath said it has to do with the sudden and drastic changes in climatic conditions.
The “Siberian breeze” is still active and is likely to subside in early March. Meanwhile, the Central team of experts met Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at his Camp Office and expressed dissatisfaction over the functioning of the Health Department. The team observed that the hospitals are not being run properly.
