The Punjab government has constituted a state level Advisory Committee under chairmanship of Dr D. Behera (PGIMER) to review the situation of H1N1 in the State and give recommendations on prevention and control of H1N1.Disclosing this here today, the Health and Family Welfare Minister Punjab, Surjeet Kumar Jayani said that it has also been noticed that cases found to be H1N1 positive were being treated by private doctors for some time and were referred to higher centres only when the condition deteriorated.Following growing panic among people regarding swine flu, the Health Minister has also issued fresh guidelines to all the civil surgeons to take precautionary measures to check spread of swine flu. The Civil surgeons have been directed that a suspected case with severe acute respiratory illness if detected by medical professionals, a throat swab sample should be immediately collected and sent to an accredited laboratory in viral transport medium, which is being provided free of cost in all the government diagnostic centres.
Reviewing the latest situation of swine flu in the state, Mr. Jayani said that till date 183 suspected cases of H1N1 have been reported, out of which 57 cases have been found positive for H1N1 and 26 have died till date. Sufficient quantities of medicines have been procured and distributed to the districts. About 1 Lakh Cap Oseltamivir 75 mg (Tamiflu), 2000 Cap Oseltamivir 30 mg (Tamiflu), 2000 Syrup Oseltamivir have been made available in all the government hospitals. All the medicines have been made available at all Government Medical Colleges, District hospitals, SDHs and CHCs of the State. He also said that Isolation wards have been established at each Government Hospital for providing care to the patients. Besides this, doctors of three Government Medical Colleges have been trained in Ventilator Management at New Delhi for management of serious cases.The Minster also issued necessary directions to officials related to procurement of medicines and training to remain on their toes and take preventive measures to effectively tackle this disease. The Minister also said that the situation was under control. Meanwhile he has asked the officers of the Health department to strengthen statewide awareness campaign on Seasonal Influenza HINI.
The Health Minister further said that to keep round the clock vigil on the health of the people, the state surveillance units have been activated and imparted required training to tackle Swine Flu situation. He said that all Civil Surgeons have been directed to call a meeting with Indian Medical Association (IMA) and execute Information, Education, Communication (IEC) activities in their respective districts. He also said that a daily report would be sent to State Surveillance Unit and instructed private hospitals to strictly follow the guidelines regarding Swine Flu. 24 x 7 monitoring would be done at the directorate level and complete vigil would also be maintained.