It is a war where the foot soldiers are forced to fight without ammunition. The doctors and other staff of Doon Hospital are treating suspected cases of swine flu sans medicines and necessary safety equipments. The winter and rainy seasons are most conducive for propagation of diseases like swine flu, but the medical health and family welfare department of the State are dependent on a private hospital for Tami flu, the drug used by the physicians to treat the dreaded and highly contagious disease.
On Tuesday, a suspected case of swine flu was admitted in the Doon hospital. This patient is being kept in the isolation ward where two doctors, three staff nurses and one ward boy are deployed. According to the norms, all those, who are in direct contact with the patient need to be given regular dosages of Tami Flu and should wear special masks as a precautionary measure.
However, the biggest hospital of the State, was provided with only 10 tablets of Tami flu for the suspected patient by Max hospital. Sources revealed that the stock of medicines with the Max hospital is also less so it not ready to lend them to others. The nodal officer for the disease Dr Praveen Panwar accepted that the N 90 mask required for the staff and Tami Flu are not available.
The District Pharmacy officer S S Chauhan said that he has raised indent of medicines with the district health officials and as a temporary measure demanded 100 Tami Flu tablets from Max hospital. The sleepy State health department came out of its slumber when a person was found positive for the disease recently.When the department officials realised that the Tami flu is not available in the State, they contacted the private vendors, who too are failing to supply the drug.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr SP Agarwal informed The Pioneer that earlier the Centre Government used to send this drug, but this time it had asked the State health department to arrange the medicine on its own. He said that the department is trying to procure the medicine as early as possible. Drug Oseltamivir (Tami Flu) is on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of essential medicines, it has put the drug as one of the most important medication needed in basic health system.