The district health department here is on its toes as 15 more cases were found positive for swine flu on Saturday. The department received the reports of the samples of the suspected patients from National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday. The report suggested that 15 patients are having swine flu. The district now has 30 cases of swine flu with death of two patients.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr SP Agarwal told The Pioneer that the reports of the samples arrived after an interval of many days so there is no need of worry. He said that many of these patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals where they were admitted. Dr Agarwal said teams of health department are visiting the houses of the swine flu patients and monitoring the health of family members and neighbors. He said that the people with symptoms like fever and acute cold are being specially monitored and their samples are being sent to NCDC for confirmation of the disease.
The health department has send samples of 166 patients to NCDC for confirmation from January 01 till date. NCDC has sent the reports of 97 cases while results of 69 samples are still awaited. The CMO claimed that the district has sufficient stock of swine flu medicines and the protective equipment. He said that all the doctors and hospitals are being asked to keep a close watch on the suspected patients of swine flu and immediately report his office about them.
The reduced temperature due to the current spell of rains last week has also added to the woes of the already beleaguered health department officials of the district. The health officials were hoping that increased temperatures would reduce the swine flu cases as the virus of swine flu gets subdued at a temperature of 30 degrees and above.