The number of suspected swine flu cases in the State mounted to 41 on Tuesday. The medical health and family welfare department is claiming to be on an alert mode to combat the dreaded disease.
The Director General (DG) of State health services Dr GS Joshi told The Pioneer that department officials have collected blood samples of these 41 patients. The department sends the samples to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) for confirmation of the disease.
The DG said that the department has received reports of 24 samples out of which six have confirmed positive for swine flu. He said that only one death (in Haridwar district) has occurred in the State due to swine flu. The DG claimed that the state has adequate stock of the medicine and other protective equipment to combat the disease. He said that doctors have been asked to instantly report the suspected cases to health department officials.
Meanwhile death of a suspected patient in the Udham Singh Nagar district on Monday has prompted an alert in the district. Though the report of this patient is yet to arrive the department is on an alert. The neighbouring Nainital District too is on alert mode and the department has set up isolation wards for the suspected patients.
It is worth mentioning here that the State health department was not having adequate number of Tami Flu (the drug required for treatment of the disease) till last week. The doctors and other people exposed to a suspected patient of swine flu is also needed to be administered with regular doses of Tami Flu.
Swine flu has caused hundreds of deaths across the country. The disease is more prevalent in the states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan and as large number of people from these states regularly visits Uttarakhand, the state remains prone to spread of infection. The virus of swine flu spreads from a virus called H1 N1, its genetic analysis reveals 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.c