Govt Takes Measures to Prevent Swine Flu

The State Government has formed a special technical committee to exclusively look at tackling and preventing the spread of communicable diseases. While the group, created by government resolution (GR) has last month, has taken up H1N1 as its primary challenge, it will also look at vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue.

 The Maharashtra Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Technical Committee (MCDPCTC), under the ministry of health, has been entrusted with the responsibility of drafting guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOP) and making recommendations for carious communicable disease ranging from H1N1 to tuberculosis.

The committee has representatives from both the public health sector as well as the private, said a state health officer.The SOP and recommendations prepared by the technical committee will be made available to all healthcare institutions and providers across the state.

Among the key recommendations that have been drawn for H1N1, are vaccination and voluntarily awareness campaigns.

"We will focus on the trivalent vaccine for the H1N1, especially among the vulnerable population that includes diabetics and people suffering from hypertension, the elderly, children suffering from asthma, women in third semester of pregnancy among others. The vaccination will reduce the mortality in this population and even otherwise. By June, a voluntarily campaign will also be taken up across the state," said Dr. Salunkhe.