The swine flu death toll touched 118 today with three more persons succumbing to the disease. The two new cases were from Uttarakhand and Gujarat and deaths are coming from states like Andhra Pradesh.
Till date, samples from 22,847 people have been tested for influenza A (H1N1) in various government laboratories across the country and 4,198 of them have been found positive, the health ministry said in a statement.
Above statistics is enough to confirm that Swine Flu has reached India’s shore – what’s really sad to note is that Indian govt’s lack of initiative towards educating citizens on Swine flu symptoms/precautions etc.
Let me start off with a small observation about Swine Flu – and how it is being tackled by the ever “respectable” authorities inside the country.
Here are some facts:
1. Search for “Swine Flu Govt of USA” on google search – the first result points to http://www.pandemicflu.gov/
2. Search for “Health Ministry Ireland Swine Flu” on google search – the first result points to http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/
3. Search for “Swine Flu Govt of India” – the first page fails to point to any page hosted by the Government of India (rather it takes you to all the news sites).
The information presented so far might make the readers believe that there is no such initiative being taken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). Well, that’s not the case. You can find the specific page here – http://www.mohfw.nic.in/SWINEFLU.htm
Who’s Responsible?
I will stop short of dissecting this page or even comparing it against the 2 other links provided above. The amount of crisp and forthcoming information being provided by the first
2 pages is what I am looking for.
Coming back to the context – is there a serious lack of resources available to the Government of India (to provide information about the disease)?
Are there not enough people who will create a perfect e-home for the Swine Flu pandemic in our country? Or do we simply don’t care? To come out with a very honest opinion – the government’s single point contact – National Informatics Center – for all such requirements isn’t simply geared up to be the “best”.
If you look at the best hospitals in Delhi (i.e. AIIMS, Apollo, Escorts / Fortis, Safdarjung), except for AIIMS, none of the websites has a mention of Swine Flu on the homepages of these institutions. And AIIMS has done the easiest thing that was there to do – link those words to the Swine Flu page at MoHFW.
At the cost of sounding the utmost critic of civic agencies, I will have to make a claim. At a time when the H1N1/Swine Flu virus is getting utmost attention all across the world – can we afford to lack behind even at the “Information Propagation” stage. Is it really too much to ask – that I want to read all about Swine Flu / H1N1 sitting in the comfort of my home?
I can already hear the standard argument that would be posted as a response to this “want”. The internet penetration in India is minuscule and the government has taken appropriate steps through other information mediums.
Being from Delhi, I can only provide facts about Delhi. However, there is little chance that those facts cannot be extrapolated to be found true all across the country. Tune into any of the radio stations like 91.1, 92.7, 93.5 or 98.3 FM – and keep yourself tuned for the next 24 hours. Tell me the number of times you hear a government solicited campaign trying to tell you about Swine Flu.
If these radio stations can provide some recording of dates like 1st and 2nd May 2009 – listen to them again for 24 hours. And count the number of times you hear a Congress or BJP poll campaign. Well, it is no surprise what number would win this game.
It’s high time that our civic agencies, the concerned ministries went overboard onto the information bandwagon. There is no single information medium that could possibly be overlooked in today’s times. And if the private players in the Health Care sector are not going to participate in such ventures, there is only a particular section of the “aam-junta” that’s going to feel “informed”.
Isn’t it morally binding upon the Apollo’s and Fortis to be forthcoming on what the H1N1 virus is all about? What are the symptoms? What are the precautions? How does the virus spread?
Ignorance by Government:
Recently, the first batches of swine flu vaccine rolled out from Baxter Inc labs but there’s little to cheer for India. While the first supplies from Baxter went to the British health network, subsequent batches from Baxter and other companies have been booked by countries such as US and UK which are stockpiling the vaccine to ward off a harsher bout of swine flu.
While huge quantities — 195 million and 90 million doses, respectively, are going to the US and UK — India is still miles from getting vaccines because the government has not entered into any pre-booking contracts with Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline or any others. India also may not have its indigenous vaccine ready before May 2010.
China has 20-odd companies racing to make the vaccine, with Sinovac Biotech perhaps the first company worldwide to complete clinical trials for swine flu vaccine.
WHO said recently that countries in the northern hemisphere had ordered more than a billion doses, sparking warnings about shortages of medicine.
Developing a vaccine is the only way to protect people from the disease, which may become severe with the onset of winter and the dire possibility of the H1N1 virus mutating.
Despite the swine flu toll touching 108, Indian health authorities have not moved fast enough. The government has not placed any orders with domestic manufacturers Serum Institute, Panacea Biotec and Bharat Biotec which are developing the vaccine. (Cadila Pharma is developing a vaccine in collaboration with US Company Novavax).
Countries Giving It Their Best Shot…
• US: Has booked 195m shots in all. Mass vaccinations will start by mid-October. 45m doses will be available at the start, with 20m doses every following week.
• UK: Has booked 90m doses. Baxter to supply 30m, has begun delivery to govt.
• China: Has booked 10m doses from Sinovac Biotech. Plans to inoculate 50% of urban population.
• France: Has booked 94m doses.
• Mexico: Has booked 40m doses.
• India: Yet to book a single dose. Indian firms unlikely to produce vaccine before May next year.
No plan for retail sale of Tamiflu:
India has no immediate plans to allow the retail sale of oseltamivir — the only effective anti-viral drug against the H1N1 influenza. In what seems to be a case of jumping the gun, drug controller general of India Surinder Singh said the notification regarding the sale of oseltamivir through retail pharmacies was expected to come in the next few days.
Govt yet to contact firms for H1N1 drug:
Serum Institute executive director SS Jadhav told TOI, ‘‘No talks have been held with procurement agencies regarding their plans of stockpiling the vaccine, including the quantity required and target group of population.’’ As a result, companies aren’t sure about the quantities of vaccine they must produce.
When contacted, Dr VM Katoch DG, ICMR, said, ‘‘we have asked global companies like Novartis to include Indians in their clinical trials to test efficacy of the vaccine on our population. We are waiting for their reply.”
That was only one side of the coin…
We really cannot blame the government or the doctors treating the patient because this was like a sudden explosion which we aren’t prepared of and unheard of because the symptoms were that of cold, cough but on detailed investigation and reports form other countries we actually understood what it is.
And since it was know that it has been carried into India by some one traveling form other country mostly US and American countries the government started screening of the passengers and it took lot of time to understand and diagnose and since we have only one or two centers i.e. in Delhi every report was to be sent to that place for investigation and in the mean time since the people who are infected did not have adequate knowledge of Swine Flu started interacting with others and infected others and it started spreading and as the virus was infected to many the government opened nodal centers in different place to screen the patients and that to in Government hospitals.
There was this case when this patient approached a private corporate hospital when understood that it was symptoms of Swine Flu was responded by the doctors to go to the nodal center and this patient simply went away to home and infected many others.
Since in India we know how the government hospitals treat most of them hesitate to go there for screening and thank God that at least the government has authorised some other hospitals to look into this people are going.
Hearing a report of WHO about the no of cases being increased and the projected no of cases in 2009 and 2010 it was alarming and I felt like the time will be like that of the floods of Noah’s where everything got perished.
If this is not stopped we have to face a grave situation and before our eyes we might lose our loved ones.
The government is doing what ever it can but there is lot to be done.
1. Training of Doctors and para medical staff as to how to handle the situation and treatment.
2. Raise awareness among the people specially schools and public places.
3. Individual should bear much responsibility towards prevention of Swine Flu.
4. If there is no cooperation from people, the government or doctors can not do any thing.
5. Involvement of Tele/Print media in raising awareness amongst the masses.
6. Cleanliness of self and surroundings to be hygienic.
7. At least infected people using masks and if tissues are used to be disposed of properly.
8. If these symptoms are found try to stay at home rather than going to school/office/public place and spreading it.
Finally, though the Government is trying its best if the people are not cooperating and not following the preventive measures then it is not possible to stop.
I need to mention an actual incident that one of my known told me, he flew into Mumbai last week. He was told there is a swine flu screening for all international passengers flying into India. But the actual fun began when he reached the desk. Person on the desk wearing a mask take his passport (doesn’t even look at him) and stamps “swine flu cleared”. What a screening? Each individual should come forward, take responsibility and perform their duties well.
There is never a dearth of information when it comes to the Healthcare sector. However, there is a real need to have the right propagation mechanism in place – for both the public and private players in this space. I hope the agencies do not let this be treated like a localized spread of some disease. It is a “Pandemic”. Let’s treat it like one.
Author: Mona Gupta
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