Sindh health dept cautions against Swine Flu

Owing to the increasing spread of swine flu in neighboring India, Sindh health department has sprung into action and issued a Swine flu alert in all major government hospitals of the province. The hospitals have also been directed to conduct N1H1 tests of all incoming flu patients. Furthermore, these patients should be shifted to a separate isolation ward and treated there.

Swine flu can spread from India due to the fact that thousands of people from Karachi and interior Sindh cross over into India annually. India is currently battling swine flu which has gripped the nation and is increasingly becoming widespread. Swine flu is a contagious disease as its germs can be transmitted via the infected person’s sneeze or cough. Swine flu infects with ease those whose immune system is weak.   Swine flu also affects children more than adults hence the government has instructed all public hospitals to be equipped in order to deal with any health emergency that might creep up. It should be borne in mind that swine flu has claimed the lives of around 1200 people in India and infected an estimated 22,000.

In the swine flu alert issued by the health department, it was mentioned that in areas where Pakistan’s borders met with India, special care should be taken to ward off swine flu. Khalid Sheikh, the department’s Special Secretary Public Health, disclosed that no case of swine flu had luckily been reported in Sindh so far hence proper care and protective measures should be adopted. He also stated that hospitals have been directed to treat suspected swine flu victims in an isolation ward separated from the rest and the data, addresses of those patients be handed over to the health department. With the relevant data in hand, medicinal sprays to battle swine flu would be conducted in their homes and localities. To contain contagiousness, he advised all flu patients to use a handkerchief when sneezing or coughing to not spread flu germs.

Expert on Special Diseases Dr. Naseem Salahuddin said that if one case was to be reported, it had the ability to spread rapidly on account of the contagious nature of the disease.