More than three weeks after a patient was found swine flu positive, the district health department has finally managed to procure the medicine to fight the disease. In the absence of Tami flu (the medicine for Swine Flu) the doctors of the State capital were finding it very difficult to fight the menace of the disease.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr SP Agrawal told The Pioneer that the medicines needed for the district are now available. He said that the department has procured the drug Tamil Flu from a Delhi based firm. In absence of this drug the department was dependent on a private hospital (Max hospital) for the supply of this vital medicine. The physicians and other staff treating the suspected cases are also required to take regular doses of this drug as a preventive measure.
Increasing incidences of Swine flu cases in the country has put the health officials of state on an alert. In the month of January the disease has taken 191 lives in the country. The number of Swine flu deaths in the states like Rajasthan and Delhi are a cause of worry for the health authorities of Uttarakhand as large number of people from these states visit the state. Dr Agarwal said that all the hospitals are advised to keep a strict vigil on the suspected cases of swine flu. He said that the physicians should immediately intimate CMO office about suspected cases so that blood sample of them can be taken.
The department sends the samples of suspected cases to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) located at New Delhi for swine flu test. It is interesting to note that medical health and family welfare department took such a long time to purchase drug Oseltamivir (Tami Flu). This drug is on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of essential medicines. The WHO has mandated that the drug should be always available in sufficient numbers with any basic health system. The virus of swine flu is also called H1 N1 virus and its genetic analysis has shown that it has originated from the animals specially pigs hence it is called Swine flu. The virus spreads from person to person similar to that of seasonal influenza.