With Swine flu reaching epidemical proportions, Hyderabad traffic police are actively considering to temporarily suspend their flagship programme – the drunk-driving check, that helped reduce road accidents.
Breath analyser test
Twelve persons died and over 150 are undergoing treatment in different hospitals due to outbreak of the disease in Telangana. Like most influenza viruses, swine flu spreads in the form of droplets through air where it suspends for a few minutes before landing on surfaces. Swine flu spreads when your hands come in contact with these surfaces where the droplets landed, say doctors. “If a person suffering from swine flu is subjected to a breath analyser test, it is possible the droplets land on the gadgets’ surfaces when he or she sneezes,” affirm doctors.
Though the breath analyser instrument’s straw is changed for each person, chances of the next person contacting swine flu are not completely ruled out, they said. Traffic police higher-ups have already directed their personnel ‘to wear masks and take other precautions’ while organising drunk driving checks in the backdrop of swine flu spurt. But, some policemen are also said to be worried of contacting swine flu despite using masks during these inspections.
“Keeping in view public health, we will consider stopping drunk driving inspections temporarily as swine flue cases are going up,” Hyderabad Traffic Police Additional Commissioner Jitender admitted. Cyberabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand also said the matter was discussed and felt that the health of policemen cannot be risked.
“We will take a call and probably stop drunk driving checks for some time temporarily,” he said. Three years ago when swine flu cases reported were high, drunk driving checks were halted for a month.
