New Delhi, August 21: Swine flu claimed its second victim in Tamil Nadu when a 47-year-old man succumbed to the virus, raising the countrywide toll to 45 even as Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today accused state governments of not doing enough to contain the pandemic.
As many as 159 fresh flu cases were reported from various states till yesterday, taking the total number of those afflicted by the disease to 2,401, a Health Ministry official said.
With the death of the middle-aged man, whose name was immediately available, in Chennai last night, the flu toll has climbed to 45 with Maharashtra accounting for 22, the highest number of fatalities, followed by Karnataka with 10. Five deaths have taken place in Gujarat, two each in Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu and one each in Kerala and Uttarakhand.
Lashing out at state governments, Azad said they have “forgotten their duty” even though the Centre was stretching itself to the maximum limit to contain the disease.
Addressing state health ministers at a review meeting of the National Rural Health Mission in New Delhi, the Minister said, “We (Centre) can go to a point, don’t expect us to go beyond a point.
“This is the maximum limit we could stretch ourselves to. Beyond this the state governments should shoulder their responsibility which they haven’t done,” Azad said.
Azad said it was the Centre which was doing everything, including contact tracing, procuring medicines, looking for vaccines and training doctors.
While the Central officers were working so hard, he said, “I would expect state level officer to at least sit till 10 pm and give some report and do something. It is because of our intervention at the national level that we have succeeded so far.
“There is a limit for the Ministry of Health to do this contact tracing and treating. I would request all the ministries and secretaries to be active and identify the hospitals,” he said.
Soon after Azad finished his speech, Gujarat Health Minister J N Vyas remarked that as a federal minister, he should not have made the remarks against state governments.
To this, Azad replied that he was not naming any state and some states had indeed done good work.
The man, who died in Chennai, was admitted to government-run General Hospital with swine flu symptoms on August 13 and advised to take Tamiflu tablets but he did not show up after giving his throat samples for test, the hospital Dean Mohana Sundaram said. He had tested positive when the swab test result came in, after which the hospital authorities alerted the public health department giving his details, Sundaram said.
Concerned health department officials traced him to a private nursing home in Adayar where he had got himself admitted but he had not informed the doctors there that he had been administered Tamiflu, he said.
—Agencies