Health department issues alert across state
Jamshedpur, Aug. 2: The State health department on Wednesday issued an alert across state for swine flu, after a suspected case of H1N1 virus emerged from Jamshedpur.
Though, the throat swab sample confirmatory reports are yet to come from the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) Kolkata but officials have already started taking preventive measures drawing lesson from 2015 when swine flu had reached endemic proportion in the state in March-April. A 75-year-old woman, a resident of Kadma had died in the city from swine flu in 2015.
The doctors and medical staff, including the nurses in the MGM Medical College and Hospital have started using mask as a precautionary step. The fear of swine flu has gripped the staff of the medical college hospital has started using handkerchief in place of nose-mask.
“We have not been provided with masks but in absence of a mask I use my towel,” said one of the medical staff posted at the medical college hospital’s Out Patient Department (OPED).
State surveillance officer Dr Ramesh Prasad said that they have sent orders to all our surveillance officers across districts to inform all private and state-owned hospitals to immediately inform about any suspected swine flu cases so that throat swab samples can be collected and sent to Kolkata at the earliest for early confirmation.
“ We have also asked all the officials to ensure that Tamiflu (medicine prescribed to control severity of swine flu) is in adequate amount at all district hospitals,” noted another official.
“The throat swab of the 48-year-old woman, a resident of Gaur Basti in Mango undergoing treatment at intensive care unit (ICU) of Tata Motors Hospital was collected this morning and will be sent to NICED Kolkata. We expect the report to reach us within two days. Till then we are treating it as a suspected swine flu case,” said district surveillance officer (Integrated Disease Surveillance Program- IDSP) Dr Sahir Pall.
“There has been no swine flu positive case or even suspected cases in the district. But we are pulling up our socks in order to meet any exigency, if at all, it arises. Our staff is trained in using PPEs for collection of throat swabs. It is mandatory for doctors and para-medics to use PPEs while treating patients with H1N1 viral strain,” said the health official.
Sources at the district civil surgeon’s office revealed that Railway Hospital in Khasmahal, Tata Main Hospital , Tata Motors Hospital, Mercy Hospital and MGM Medical College and Hospital had been asked to keep isolation wards ready as a precautionary step.
The health department has also provided the workers of MGM Medical College and Hospital and other health centres with other necessary instructions.