Private hospitals told to report to Govt. on H1N1 cases

GOVT TO MONITOR TREATMENT: A group on their way to the doctor. Private hospitals have been asked to keep the government in the loop about H1N1 cases. File photo

The district administration has asked private hospitals here to inform the public health officials of any A (H1N1) influenza cases they treat.

District Collector P. Umanath has said in a press release that the hospitals should not announce on their own that a patient had died of the flu. Instead, they should inform a high-level committee formed in the district to examine the cause of death.

The committee comprised Joint Director of Health Services, the Deputy Director, Dean of the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, Resident Medical Officer, professors of general medicine, virology.

This committee would investigate the cases and establish whether these were A (H1N1) deaths.

The private hospitals should submit to the Deputy Director of Health Services the number of cases reporting every day with symptoms of the flu.

This was mandatory under the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939.

The Deputy Director could be contacted on phone number: 0422-220351.

These hospitals should treat the cases only in the isolation ward so that the others did not contract the flu virus. No one showing symptoms of the flu should be treated as an out-patient. The quarantine was mandatory, the release said.

The Collector asked the public not to panic as there was a cure for the disease.

Adequate stock of capsules for curing people of the flu was available in all Government medical institutions such as the CMCH, Government Hospitals and Taluk Hospitals.