Telangana government gears up to tackle swine flu

Hyderabad: Outbreak of swine flu or H1N1 in neighbouring Maharashtra has put Telangana State health department staff on alert. As deaths and the number of cases reached the threshold level of being declared an outbreak in Maharashtra, TS’s Epidemic cell is gearing up to tackle an increase in swine flu cases in districts close to the state border. 

Apart from the Michigan strain of the swine flu virus, the TS epidemic cell says that Hongkong and Brisbane strains have also been reported and so all health staff have been inoculated with the trivalent flu vaccine. 

Personnel at bus stations, railway stations and airports have been alerted to look out for passengers from Maharashtra who may be displaying the symptoms, as screening everyone would be difficult.

Joint director of TS’s Epidemic cell, Dr G. Subbalaxmi, said, “We haven’t issued a public alert as it leads to panic. But our staff is on the alert and will tackle this effectively. The outbreak in Maharashtra and the increasing number of cases in Karnataka are of serious concern to Telangana.”

Dr Subbalaxmi said that one case of swine flu has been reported in Adilabad district, neighbouring Maharashtra, and another one in Sangareddy district, neighbouring Karnataka. 

“We can’t screen people moving across the Maharashtra-TS border, but we are going to start a major campaign regarding swine flu at all entry and exit points and at railway stations, bus stations etc as we did in 2015,” she said.

She added that the WHO recommended trivalent vaccine for H1N1 has been given to all health staff and those working in Gandhi Hospital and in IPM and Fever Hospital virology labs. “The Michigan strain reports less number of deaths. However, all these strains are now commonly seen in cases in Maharashtra and here in TS too. A 49-year- old Gujarati woman died of swine flu in the city. She was visiting her relatives here,” the doctor said.

Hyderabad, Medchal and Rangareddy, that have a huge floating population, have reported the most number of swine flu cases in the state. There have been 17 deaths this year and 1,566 patients have tested positive from all 31 districts in TS. Adilabad, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Kamareddy, Kumuram Bheem, Nirmal, Nizamabad and Mancherial districts have been identified as the most vulnerable as they abut Maharashtra. On an average, about 10 per cent of the 70-80 suspected cases of H1N1 reported every day test positive. 

“On Monday, we got 84 cases of which 15 tested positive,” said Dr Subbalaxmi of the Epidemic cell.