Rajasthan: Govt puts more men and machine to combat swine flu

Roping in more efforts to combat Swine flu, the state health department has appointed nodal officers for the five worst-hit districts. The department will also add up the infrastructure to combat the disease and will have additional vehicles appointed at all district headquarters for speedy transit of collected samples, while a test lab facility will be developed at Barmer. The decision was made during a review meeting of the swine flu treatment and prevention activities by health minister Raghu Sharma on Saturday. 

Rajasthan has registered a record number of swine flu cases this season with the total 2793 cases, the state capital Jaipur is followed by Jodhpur, Udaipur, Barmer and Bikaner. The district nodal officers will preside the screening and prevention activities along with ensuring the treatment of the patients. The nodal officers have been instructed to take charge from Sunday and establish coordination between various swine flu-related activities in a weeks period. 

Of the five districts, Barmer has been devoid of the testing facility for the infection, however, the department has now associated with an authorised agency to provide the facility in the district over next six days. During the meeting, the department officers were instructed to continue the door-to-door screening campaign being held in the swine flu-affected areas. It was informed that more than 45 lakh people have been screened by the department over the past week of which more than a lakh displayed symptoms of common cold and influenza. 

Only 1494 of these displayed symptoms of swine flu and were recommended for the test to confirm the infection. Meanwhile, 389 pregnant ladies and 470 other high-risk group people were also recommended for preventive treatment. Efforts of the state health department though have stood insufficient to prevent the further prevalence of the disease. The weather conditions have come to further prolong the active season for infection.