There seems to be no coordination among officials of the State Medical and Health Department over alerting people over swine flu and its detection.
Senior lawyer S. Niranjan Reddy, who was appointed Amicus Curiae in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea over outbreak of diseases like swine flu and dengue in the State, made this observation in a detailed report submitted to Telangana High Court. He presented the report to a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy.
The senior lawyer noted that massive campaign over mosquito/vector-borne diseases is the need of the hour. Along with people, everyone connected to medical fraternity should be made aware about the steps to be taken to prevent vector-borne disease, he stated.
Awareness campaign
Awareness campaigns must be an integral part of the action plan for earlier detection of vector-borne diseases. There are only two diagnostic centres for the entire State for testing and detecting swine flu going by the information available in public domain. One is the Institute of Preventive Medicine and the other is the Government Fever Hospital in Nallakunta.
He stated that the number of such centres should be enhanced at least to seven or eight. These facilities should be located at convenient and central places so as to cater to the needs of people of three or four districts. The report furnished a list of labs testing clinical samples for swine flu in the State to the bench. The senior lawyer suggested that all diagnostic centres and doctors of the State should be informed about such swine flu detection facilities after they are established. These diagnostic centres and the entire medical fraternity should also be told about the protocol to be adhered to about collection of blood samples, the report said.
If swine flu is detected earlier, it can be checked easily from spreading to others. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had come out with several guidelines, protocols and precautions on controlling such diseases, the report said, furnishing the details to the Bench.
