PANJIM: Rubbishing all rumours with regards to swine flu, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the State is well-equipped to handle H1N1 cases.
Speaking to Herald, Rane after chairing a review meeting with officials and doctors on Thursday said, “The system is in place and the claims that there are no masks available is all rubbish.”
He emphasised that all the health centres are well equipped to respond to any outbreak.
“At the PHC level, since the Director of Health Services is out of state, I have asked under secretary Dr Rajnanda Desai to monitor”, he added.
Unlike in the past, the health centres including GMC has the required medicines in the abundances, Rane said.
“Earlier when I was the Health Minister we had a H1N1 testing centre at GMC which had become defunct. I have asked to restart the same and we have isolation rooms for H1N1 and are using them.”
Meanwhile, epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar said, “Swine flu is just like any other flu and therefore there is no reason for the people to panic.” However, he demanded that every individual should take precaution, especially those in the high risk category.
He said, “Swine flu is being detected in almost all the states in the last two-three months. Last year, we had few cases, but this year the number has increased. Since January we have received around 50 cases. Flu has always been there and swine flu is one of them.”
Dr Betodkar said, “Maximum number of cases will be mild and very few people will need treatment and of these few will develop complications.”
He said due to swine flu surveillance by the health authorities the number of swine flu cases are detected. However, the data regarding the number of cases and deaths due to other flu cases is not maintained.
Betodkar asserted, “All PHCs are continuously creating awareness on dengue, malaria, chikungunya and swine flu and are well equipped to respond to any outbreak including swine flu. The H1N1 influenza vaccine is available at all DHS centres and as such there is no need to panic.”
