A day after issuing guidelines on how to tackle swine flu that has taken pandemic proportions, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Thursday said the same have been put in place. While 40 pharmacists in and around the designated nodal hospitals in the national Capital have been given licences to sell Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) tablets that are used in the treatment of swine flu, Jain also assured that diagnosis will not take longer than 24 hours now as two more laboratories have been assigned to conduct free tests for the disease, in addition to the existing three laboratories.
Earlier, the three hospitals conducting free swine flu diagnostic tests were All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patel Chest Institute and National Centre for Disease Control. However, on Thursday, the Health Department also directed Maulana Azad Medical College Hospital and the University College of Medical Sciences Hospital to conduct tests for swine flu in their laboratories.
A cap has also been put on the amount of money private laboratories can charge for a swine flu diagnostic test. No laboratory can charge over Rs4,500 for a diagnostic test. “The State Government had capped the price of tests in private labs at a maximum of Rs4,500, after reports of some labs charging as much as Rs12,000, were published in the media,” said Health Department officials.
Additionally 25 more hospitals, including private ones, have been roped in to help cure the increasing number of swine flu patients that are coming in each day.
In order to overcome the lack of “availability” of Tamiflu tablets the stock of medicines has been doubled to meet the crisis, Jain confirmed. Dismissing reports of shortage of medicines, the Health Minister said: “There were some reports about the lack of medicines, so we checked. There is no dearth of medicines.”
Jain added that the State Government has granted licenses to 40 new drug stores connected to big Government and some private hospitals in the city for selling Tamiflu tablets.
Some of these nodal hospitals are AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar lohia Hospital, GB Panth Hospital, lNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, SDN Hospital, Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, major private hospitals like Max Hospital and Fortis Hospital to name a few.
On Thursday alone, a total of 776 diagnostic tests for swine flu were done in the National Capital of which 136 were positive. This brought up the total number of cases of swine flu to 1,917 this year.
Other than the Central Government helpline for swine flu, the Delhi Government has also set up a separate helpline, 011-22307145, for any information related to the disease. People can also register complaints against private labs and hospitals if they are being overcharged for tests. However, amidst rising concerns over the rapidly increasing cases of swine flu, Jain appealed to the people not to panic since the situation is under control and the State Government is monitoring the situation.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth on Thursday urged State Governments to ensure round-the-clock functioning of outbreak monitoring cells and necessary helplines as the number of people affected by swine flu in the country touched the 11,000 mark.
Seth, while chairing a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee to review the swine flu outbreak in the country, also directed drug controllers of States to ensure availability of necessary vaccines, along with guidelines for vaccination and treatment protocol.