Instead of taking effective measures to combat the Swine flu, now spreading wings, the health department of Uttarakhand appears to be engaged in suppressing the data pertaining to the dreaded disease which has already claimed seven lives. Observers say that the department is shying away from facing the facts head-on, given the alarming spurt in the number of Swine flu cases and more importantly, the unusual high mortality rate this year.
In its exercise to tone down the alarm the spike in such cases has triggered, the department has formed a death audit committee consisting of the some experts who would examine whether the deaths have occurred due to H1 N1 virus, the cause of Swine flu. The state health directorate has directed all the district offices that the formal announcement of the death caused by Swine flu should be done only after the scrutiny is done by the death audit committee. Defending the constitution of the death audit committee, the department says that the panic the Swine flu cases have spawned in the people’s mind is unwarranted. However, the observers say that the exercise is a convenient ploy employed by the edgy health department to report lesser number of Swine flu cases.
Interestingly, six out of seven deaths reported so far in Dehradun have occurred at Mahant Indiresh Hospital.
The hospital has an advanced molecular laboratory which has been authorised by National Council of Disease Control (NCDC) to conduct Swine flu tests and report them. Based on the certificate given by NCDC, the state health department is now accepting the Swine flu report prepared by this lab. On its part, the department sends the swab samples of the suspected Swine flu cases to NCDC New Delhi for confirmation. Taking note of the fact that more cases are being reported by the molecular lab of Mahant Indiresh Hospital, the director general (DG) health services Dr T C Pant and the chief medical officer ( CMO) Dehradun Dr S K Gupta have visited the hospital on Wednesday.
Quizzed over doubt being cast on the authenticity of its Swine flu lab reports, the spokesperson of Mahant Indiresh Hospital Bhupendra Raturi said, “Our lab is duly approved by the NCDC New Delhi.
As part of the requirements, the hospital sends 10 percent of its samples tested by it to the NCDC for its counter confirmation.
If the authorities have any doubt on authenticity of our reports they should get the samples declared positive by us rechecked by NCDC.’’