Soon, swine flu diagnostic centres around Maharahtra to be up and running

The State government has assured the Bombay High Court, that by month end, laboratories to check swine flu will be operational in Aurangabad and Lathur government medical colleges. It also assured that by year-end, centres in other districts like Ratnagiri, Sindhudhurg, Kolhapur up and running. Till now the practice has been to send swabs of patients to laboratories at Pune or Mumbai, thus delaying treatment.

Government Pleader Abhinandan Vagyani, submitted an affidavit by Dr Prakash Bhagwan Bhoi, Joint Director of Health Services, Pune, which states that "The diagnostic centres at the Government Medical College, Aurangabad and Latur will be operative within a period of 10 to 15 days."

A bench of Justice R M Sawant and Justice Nitin W Sambre, however, directed the authorities to make the Swine Flu Diagnostic Laboratories at Aurangabad and Latur operational latest by November 30.

The direction was given during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate Datta Mane. There are only 21 Swine Flu Diagnostic Laboratories in the country. Seven of them are in Maharashtra, out of those two are in Mumbai. Still, most districts and divisions in the state do not have any mechanism to detect the disease.

The PIL which was filed in 2015, relying on a report published by DNA which highlighted the lack of steps taken to prevent the disease and how public hospitals were not equipped with proper medicines.

The affidavit states that the Maharashtra government has taken necessary steps to prevent the outbreak of the disease, and at present, there are 31 approved laboratories — 26 private and five government.

It also stated that as per the National Centre for Disease Control, diagnosis is not required to initiate the treatment. Influenza patients can be treated taking into account their symptomatic categorization. Thus, there is no delay in treating patients due to lack of diagnostic facilities. The affidavit also states that in 2018, 128026 people were vaccinated.

Easy Detection

• Labs will be operational in Aurangabad and Lathur government medical colleges by month end
• By the end of the year, labs will be set up in districts like Ratnagiri, Sindhudhurg