In his inaugural speech at a workshop on swine flu at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), state health minister Jaynarayan Vyas said that screening of passengers was not as important as people understanding their responsibility towards controlling the spread of and preventing swine flu infections.
Vyas said that thermal detectors for swine flu, which measure body temperature and the pulse rate, are not very reliable. “Till now, 11 teams of experts have scanned 93,271 people with these machines, of which six were reported as suspected cases. But none of these turned out to be positive. The detectors can also miss cases of infection wherein the symptoms are shown at a later stage,” he said.
The workshop at IIMA was organised in collaboration with the Gujarat chapter of the Indian Public Health Association and was attended by around 500 people, including the heads of academics institutions, doctors of medicine, health officials of the state government and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, non-government organisations working in the field of health and other civil society groups.
Vyas said that voluntary isolation of people not feeling well was an important duty and responsibility of citizens towards controlling the spread of swine flu. “Awareness, isolation and medication are the keys to dealing with swine flu. Schools should be lenient towards their students and allow them to remain absent from classes if they do not feel well,” he said. “Under the Epidemic Diseases Act, we can order the isolation of people in institutions and arrest those who disobey. However, we believe in democracy instead of issuing directives.”
Talking about the status of swine flu in the state, Vyas said that Gujarat was one of the states of India that was prone to the infection as lots of people travel to and from the state because of their relationships and the activities in relation to industries.
He said that the movement of foreign visitors and non-resident Indians has been very high and that around 10,000 students have returned from other states in recent times, factors which make Gujarat highly prone to swine flu infections.
“We have, however, been controlling the situation very well and the swine flu toll has been the least in Gujarat. The mortality rate has been only two per cent, which is the lowest in the country,” Vyas said.
