New Delhi: Swine flu is increasing on a "vast scale" and India is gearing up to tackle its spread, union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday of the infection that has killed six people and affected over 850 in the country.
"We have to prepare for the coming months. Swine flu is increasing on a vast scale, and on the basis of the large population of India it is likely that more swine flu cases will occur, and we should be ready to handle it," Azad said at a press conference after holding an almost three-hour-long meeting with senior health ministry officials.
"We have unfortunately six deaths in the country," he said.
Azad said ever since swine flu entered the country almost three months ago, the health ministry found that communication with state governments was time consuming and they have decided to rope in senior bureaucrats to assist them.
"The Cabinet Secretary has decided to provide us some joint secretaries and additional secretaries from other ministries who will be rushed to states along with Health Ministry teams. These officials will press upon state health officials to identify more government and private laboratories to handle large number of swine flu cases," he said.
"We have decided to allow private labs to test for H1N1. We have set the guidelines and have sent it to all state governments," he said.
He said those private labs that adhere to these guidelines should inform the states. "Our people could go and check whether they can do the tests," he said.
Azad said a total of 864 cases of swine flu have been reported so far, of which 523 have been discharged, and 341 are under treatment, while six people have died.
The government also decided to continue monitoring and screening at the 22 international airports in the country as they have been able to detect swine flu cases at the airport.
He said a total of over 4.5 million people were screened at the airports, of whom 635 were found to be positive. "We will not discontinue it (screening)," he said.
Azad said four thermal scanners have been installed at the international airports and these have helped detect people with flu-like symptoms.
He said the country has 10 million Tamiflu capsules and the ministry has distributed two thirds of it to the various states. "In today's meeting, we have decided to stockpile another 20 million," he added.
Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekar was also present at the meeting.
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