Death of a person from swine flu in one of a private hospital and subsequent delay of eight days in reporting this death to the health department has exposed lax attitude of authorities in dealing with serious contagious diseases. The health experts are aghast at the pathetic response of the district health authorities of Dehradun and the Himalayan hospital Jollygrant, where this particular patient was admitted, in dealing with a highly contagious and fatal disease like swine flu.
This particular patient (Tajbar Singh), a resident of Rajawala in Vikasnagar was admitted in Himalayan Hospital on March 09.
His sample was sent to the National Centre Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi for testing and it was found positive for the disease on March 21.The patient died on March 26. The district in charge of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Puneet Chandra said that the death was reported by the hospital on evening of April 03. He added that the department had conducted a survey of the locality where this patient resided when his sample was declared positive.
When contacted, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr Y S Thapliyal termed delay in reporting of swine flu death as gross negligence on part of the hospital. He said that a show cause notice is being issued to the hospital for this negligence. Dr Thapiyal said that the department has so far collected 27 samples of suspected patients of swine flu and out of them four cases have been found positive for the disease. No official of the Himalayan hospital Jollygrant was available for any comment.
The district health officials are putting the entire blame of the delay in reporting of death of the swine flu patient on the hospital but the fact remains that health department too should have regularly updated itself with the status of the patient.
“The hospital no doubt is at fault for not reporting the death but it was the responsibility of district IDSP to keep a track of the patient. The health department was informed about the suspected patient by the hospital but it appears the department ignored this patient even though he was found positive for the disease. It is a serious lapse as swine flu is a highly contagious disease,’’ said one a senior official of health department.
Swine flu is a viral disease, its virus is also called H1 N1 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.
The swine flu patients are divided into three categories. In 'A' category patient suffers from mild fever and irritation in throat. The patients of this category should be isolated at home and there is no need of swine flu test and medication for the patient. The patients of 'B' category are characterized by high fever and the patient need isolation and should be administered Oseltamivir (Tami flu) medicine. The medical experts are of the view that if a patient is suffering from breathlessness, low Blood Pressure along with symptoms of A and B category than he is put under category 'C'. Such patients should be isolated, hospitalized, should be administered Tami flu and needed to be tested for swine flu.