With five new swine flu deaths reported in Gujarat on Tuesday, the H1N1 death toll in the state has reached 100.
Four of the five deaths had taken place earlier but they were confirmed as H1N1 cases on Tuesday. The total death toll includes the eight patients from Rajasthan who died in Gujarat hospitals.
Another 16 positive H1N1 cases were detected on Tuesday, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 647. These days, new cases are detected in double digits daily.
The Ahmedabad Medical Association and top health officials of the state will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss the swine flu crisis. AMA members said they are thinking of asking the state government to allow testing for swine flu in private labs.
They said that as the test is expensive, they will try to find some way to make the test cheaper if the government allows testing in private laboratories.
Principal secretary, family welfare and medical education, Rajesh Kishore, said that the state government had asked medical associations in the state to contact their members and tell them to deal with the pandemic more aggressively. He further said that the government is buying more ventilators for government hospitals.
“We have already issued licenses to 122 chemists in the state to sell anti-swine flu tablets so that people can have easy excess to the medicines.”
