Amid handful cases of H1N1 flu virus, popularly known as swine flu, being reported from different parts of Jharkhand, the State health officials have upped the ante in the fight against the deadly strain that has wreaked havoc in other parts of the country. From a fresh set of kits to continuous situation analysis Jharkhand seems all ready to take the virus head on.
As many as 100 additional Viral Transport Media (VTM) kits have been provided by the Centre after the demand was raised by the State.
Notably, 100 kits have already been distributed among districts. The kits are used to collecting nasal and throat swab of a suspect.
“The kits have been provided and it must have arrived at Ranchi airport. We will collect it shortly,” Director of state Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (ISDP) Dr Ramesh Prasad.
The officials from Directorate of Health are on their toes as they conducted several rounds of situation analysis and held meetings with government and private hospitals to take stock of the situation in different parts of Jharkhand.
During a review meeting conducted at Jamshedpur, the Directorate requested private hospitals of the steel city to use their resources as well to purchase costly medicine for the treatment of swine flu.
“Maximum suspected cases have been reported from Jamshedpur hence we asked private officials to not depend entirely on the State Government and use their resources as well to purchase medicine,” said Prasad.
The State’s repertoire of medicines include around 10,000 capsules of 75ml, 5,000 capsules of 30ml and around 300 viles for infants. The combined worth of the medicines is around `5 lakh.
Meanwhile, no fresh cases of swine flu have been reported in Ranchi till Saturday and there is only one suspect undergoing treatment at RIMS’ isolation ward. As per the directive issued by the Directorate, the RIMS administration has moved in ventilator at the isolation ward. “No fresh case has been reported to us. Yet, we are ready with infrastructure and we have sufficient stock of medicines,” added Director, RIMS, SK Chaudhary. Only one case has been reported in Ranchi so far and the patient is still in critical condition.