No need to panic on swine flu: Minister

Hyderabad, Aug 10 :-

  There was no need to panic about the Swine Flu virus that has killed 6 and infected over 600 people in the country, said Minister for Health Danam Nagender on Monday.

Talking to media persons, the Minister said that the government is decentralising the availability of the Tamiflu drugs in the country so that there is no paucity and is ready to allow private laboratories to conduct the test provided they have the facilities.

“Lot of panic has been created in the last two days, especially since the death of the girl in Pune. There is no cause for our city,” the Minister told TNN.

He said that Hyderabad has so far reported 221 influenza A cases, of which 74 tested positive and given treatment. Only two people are undergoing treatment at the Government Chest Hospital.

“We have far less people affected with the flu as compared to developed countries like the UK, the US, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Singapore,” he added.

He said the virus affecting school children obviously worries them as it is a perfect setting for the virus to spread easily to other children. The government would conduct medical camps in all schools as a preventive measure to contain the virus spread to other school wards, he pointed out.

But he added that they are more worried about this virus because there is no vaccine. “We do not have a vaccine for it. We have treatment for it, which is Tamiflu. It is a curable disease and not an incurable one,” he said.