The Telangana government has decided to maintain high alert in supervision of swine flu without being complacent that there were no more casualties after the death of a woman at a private hospital here in the early hours of Friday.
However, the official spokesman of the government on swine flu and Director of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences L. Narendranath told a press conference that 50 of the 139 blood samples suspected of having contracted swine flu tested positive at the Institute of Preventive Medicine. He said high alert against the virus would continue because it could remain dormant if it was not in an explosive form.
With the latest casualty, the toll went up to 12 this month while another 9 persons died in December. A total of 299 people have tested positive out of 893 blood samples examined this month. There were no cases from districts although patients with symptoms were admitted to hospitals here from Medak and Warangal, he added.
Dr. Narendranath said some patients were on ventilator in corporate hospitals but they were all old cases. No fresh cases were put on ventilator. Gandhi Hospital shifted 16 patients to Fever Hospital as their condition improved. In addition to these two hospitals, the government arranged 150 beds at Osmania General Hospital and NIMS if the number of patients swelled. He also said there was no dearth of anti-virus drugs even if swine flu intensified. He asked people to take vaccines with the recommendation of doctors because they were meant for high risk groups. The vaccines yielded limited results.
Sangareddy Staff Reporter adds:
Three cases of swine flu were reported from Medak district while one of them was stated to have died late in the evening at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Saturday.
