To assess if swine flu has indeed caused the reported deaths in Telangana, a team of epidemiology experts from the Centre are visiting health facilities that deal with the virus.
The team visited Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) and Niloufer Hospital on Wednesday to enquire about infections and deaths. Case history of patients who caught the virus was discussed with State’s public health officials. The central team seeks to differentiate exclusive swine flu deaths from the total 20 deaths that are said to have occurred in the State.
The team is expected to visit Gandhi Hospital on Thursday where 11 deaths occurred. Telangana’s health officials told the team that it has vaccinated its high-risk medical staff by procuring nearly 10,000 doses of the vaccine. The number of swine flu deaths has decreased over last two years. However, the actual number of infections could be higher than reported as private hospitals treating patients, often operated outside notification framework of the Government.
Officials believe these numbers are not significantly large. It was also learnt that another team was simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh, carrying out a similar exercise
