Chandigarh August 13, All the Civil Surgeons have been asked to be vigilant and monitor the preventive measures being taken in the government hospitals themselves regularly and also fan out their teams in the remote areas of the state to check the symptoms of this flu.
Disclosing this here today a spokesman of the Department of Health and Family Welfare Punjab said that isolation wards have also been established at the District and sub-district hospitals. Rapid Response Teams have already been constituted in all the districts. In order to check the outbreak of swine flu through the passengers coming from abroad, Screening at the International Raja Sansi Airport, Amritsar (about 5 International Flights take place daily) has been started. Screening counters have been setup to screen about 500- 800 passengers, who arrive at the airport daily. Daily screening report at the Airport is being received by e-mail from the doctor concerned. Quarantine Medical Officer of Raja Sansi Airport and has also been asked to identify suspected patients arriving from affected countries and immediate refer them to Civil Hospital Amritsar for diagnosis and medical assistance. . Adequate medical and paramedical manpower is available at Airport, Wagah Border and Attari Railway Station
The Punjab Government was already in touch with the Ministry of Health, Government of India urging them to direct the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to approve at least two government medical colleges of Amritsar and Patiala as Centres to combat any eventuality arising out of swine flu in the state. He further said that preventive measures were constantly being taken by the State Health Department to face any crisis from the pandemic. .
The spokesman also said that Semi Automatic Analyzer has been delivered and installed at civil hospital Amritsar by GOI. 16000 Capsules of Tamiflu received from GOI at State H.Q, out of which sufficient quantity as per requirement have been issued to all the Civil Surgeons. As per the information available with the state health department, 25 positive and 71 suspected cases of swine flu had been reported in the state till date. All the patients with positive symptoms had been discharged from the hospitals after giving them proper treatment and all of them were now fine.