Bhubaneswar: With swine flu (H1N1) fear gripping the public and those visiting the hospital, top officials of health department ruled out the need for panic and claimed that the situation is under control.
Interestingly, most of the patients and those visiting the hospitals in the capital are wearing some kind of medical face mask like surgical mask or N95 mask to protect them from the deadly virus. The experts confirmed that only the medical professionals dealing with patients have to wear the medical face mask.
“There is no need for everyone to wear a medical mask. But, we strongly advice the medical professionals to wear mask since they are in contact with the patients. Others can cover their face with a handkerchief,” said A Pradhan, deputy director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.
However, some of the pharmacies in the capital are making business out of this fear and are recommending the customers to buy expensive medical masks. “The surgical mask (Rs 100) will not offer much protection from H1N1. So, I personally recommend the customers to buy N95 mask (Rs 350) for better safety,” said Alok Behera, a city based pharmacist who recommended N95 mask for this correspondent before visiting hospitals.
Experts confirm that it is totally unnecessary. “If you are visiting a hospital or in public place stay away from people with cold or cough. You can simply cover your face with a handkerchief,” added Pradhan.
The reports of rising casualty figures related to swine flu have triggered panic among the public. But, health officials dismissed the need for any panic.
“We have tested around 461 samples for H1N1. Of this, we have only 156 confirmed swine flu cases. Although, we have reported 11 deaths so far, we cannot say that it is due to H1N1 since majority of those patients had reported other complications. This means, these are patients with low immunity, like people with other diseases like diabetes, hypertension etc. So, the flu weakens their immunity and situation got worse,” said JK Tripathy, director, Public Health.
In fact, the top health official also claimed that majority of deaths happened in flu season.
“This year, the first swine flu case was reported in March. But, we started reporting casualty only in August. This means climatic factors also plays a role in casualty. For instance, we generally regard rainy season and winter season as flu season. So, the best advice is to seek medical opinion if you develop fever, cough, throat pain, respiratory problem etc and there is no need for panic your doctor would give you the best advice,” added Tripathy.
Significantly, the biggest concern for health officials is regarding the swine flu vaccine.
“Swine flu vaccine is manufactured abroad and we have requested the Central government for providing vaccines to the state. Since we are having flu season we have to take precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. Although, the vaccine would not give lifetime immunity, it can reduce the spread of the diseases. However, Central government has not responded to our request and we hope that we would get the vaccines by this month,” said a top health official requesting anonymity.
Jose K Joseph, OP