With the death of another woman due to swine flu being reported from Amritsar and the number of people testing positive due to the influenza rising across the State, the Punjab Health Department on Wednesday proclaimed that there was no need to panic as the government hospitals were fully geared up to deal with any kind of eventuality.
Following the death of the patient, a resident of Sultanwind in Amritsar, at a government hospital due to swine flu, Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani said at present there were 16 suspected cases out of which five had been found positive. Of these one was reported from Ropar and two each from Ludhiana and Amritsar. Earlier, on January 20, another woman resident of Amritsar had died due to swine flu, which has this year claimed one life in Chandigarh and seven in neighbouring Haryana.
The Minister said Rapid Response Teams in all the district headquarters were all equipped to tackle the flu. He said that the civil surgeons have also been directed to give preference to proper screening of the suspected cases so that the treatment, if required, could be started in time.
Mr. Jayani said these were isolated cases and the State Government has taken all precautionary measures to control the HINI influenza in the State. Among the steps taken was preparation of well equipped isolation wards for keeping patients found positive with the influenza.
In Amritsar, Civil Surgeon Rajiv Bhalla said in the case of the woman patient the cause of death was H1N1 or swine flu. The victim had been running fever for sometime and was initially treated for pneumonia.
