State health department will intensify awareness campaign after swine flu claimed four lives in Jamshedpur on Monday. 75-year-old Charu Rani Dutta, admitted to Kantilal Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Bistupur with acute pyrexia or high fever and bilateral pneumonia, breathed her last on Friday. The test reports confirming that she was suffering from the disease, however, arrived from Calcutta on Monday.
“It is unfortunate that despite all precautions being taken by the health department, her life could not be saved,” said the Health Minister Ram Chandra Chandravanshi. According to Chandravanshi, ongoing awareness drive against the disease will be intensified further, making each and every individual aware of the dangers related to the disease.
East Singhbhum district officer of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) Sahir Pall on the other hand, said that the people also will have to be conscious regarding their health and should immediately rush to the nearest hospital if they feel to have any symptom of the disease.
“The health officials as well as the people will also have to be more alert and any patient found to have fever and cold for over three days will have to report to the nearest health centre,” said Pall.
Although, awareness drive is being conducted across the state, health officials in Jamshedpur have requested the JUSCO to get hand bills and pamphlets distributed among the people in order to make them individually aware of the precautions to be taken and consequences of the disease.
Pall, quite aware of the fact that most of the patients (06) out of the 11 across the state have been tested positive are from Jamshedpur, asserted that they will now have be more alert. “Jamshedpur, being the industrial city having a large influx of travelers from outside the state might be the reason behind the maximum cases of swine flu detected here,” said Pall.
According to Pall, throat swab sample of one more persons from Jamshepur has again been sent to the Kolkata-based National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases on Tuesday. According to the data made available with the health department, out of the 33 patients who undergone tests for the disease, 11 were tested positive. The list of the positive tested disease includes 6 patients of Jamshedpur, 02 from Ranchi, 02 of Khunti and one of Giridih.
The disease claimed life of its fourth victim -- Charu Rani Dutt at Jamshedpur among the total deaths due to the disease remained four, including Shilpi Akhouri of Ranchi. The other two people who died of Swine Flu were Jailal Jaiswal and Sudha Jyoti of Jamshedpur.
The health department has already launched adequate awareness campaign across the state by sticking posters at the public places including railway stations and bus stops. Additional temporally health camps have also been set up at some of the vulnerable railway stations and bus stands where the inflow of commuters from other States is high.