New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) The swine flu H1N1 virus has claimed 314 lives between May and August 8 with Maharashtra alone accounting for 176 deaths, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Answering Questions of Prof P J Kurien and Mr Ramachandra Khuntia, Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi said in a written reply that Kerala suffered second highest casualties with 76 deaths followed by Karnataka 21, Andhra Pradesh 15 and Gujarat 14. The fatalities in Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh and Orissa were in single digit, he said.
He said the Centre had alerted the States and the Union Territories for reviewing their preparedness for responding to a worst scenario. They were asked to assess the requirement for drugs and vaccines for facilitating the Health Ministry to arrange the supplies. The Government of India, he said, was maintaining adequate stocks of Oseltamivir and H1N1 vaccine to vaccinate health workers. A national level media plan had been finalised by
the Task Force in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
Epidemiological trends, current status, guidelines and operating procedures wee made available to the States and public through the website www.mohfw-h1n1.nic.in, the Minister said.
To a question, the Minister said five deaths had taken place in Delhi and there was no study done to establish association between humid weather and H1N1 flu. The community surveillance to detect clusters of influenza like illness was being done through Integrated Disease Surveillance Project. Forty five laboratories were testing samples including 26 in the Government sector, he said.
The states had identified hospitals and were strengthening isolation facilities to mitigate the impact of pandemic and had opened up large number of screening centres.
Mr Trivedi said four Indian companies — Serum Institute, Panacea Bio-tech, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadilla were in the process of manufacturing the pandemic vaccine and three of them had entered into advanced market commitment agreement on payment of Rs 10 crore to each of them.
As an interim measure, the Government had imported 1.5 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to vaccinate health workers, the high risk group and they were put under the command of the States.
–UNI