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The imported vaccine against H1N1 virus will arrive in Pune and other parts of the state this weekend. These are mainly for the high-risk group of medical practitioners and paramedical staff who have been dealing with patients infected with H1N1 virus.
In Pune, over 3,000 patients were treated for swine flu while in the state, this number is over 6,000. Dr V Khanande, joint director of Health Services said that there were 202 swine flu deaths in Pune and a total of 380 in the state.
Since Pune saw a huge number of patients suffering from swine flu, the centre had directed health officials to submit data on the number of doctors and others from the medical community who would need vaccination. A list of 34,215 doctors — both government and private set up — was submitted to the centre, the health officials said. At present, there are 109 hospitals in the state treating swine flu patients, of this 24 are in Pune.
State Health Minister Suresh Shetty had called a meeting in which he directed Sassoon hospital to submit a feasibility report on whether the vaccine can be administered to schoolchildren. When contacted Dr Arun Jamkar, Dean, B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital said that their expert team will submit the report soon. “We have already informed our doctors, nurses and paramedical staff about the proposal to vaccinate this high risk group against swine flu,” Jamkar said.
The vaccine, developed by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, has been imported to protect health care workers against the virus, said health officials.
Khanande said another meeting of state immunization officials has been called to discuss the cold chain facility for storing vaccines and further instruction from the Centre is awaited.
‘Schoolchildren more susceptible to the virus’
Cases of seasonal influenza may have gone down but according to National Institute of Virology (NIV) director Dr A C Mishra, there is no ‘break up in the H1N1 transmission of the virus’. Evidence shows that more schoolchildren have been infected than adults which shows they are more susceptible to the H1N1 virus. While a back-up vaccine has been procured by the government, the NIV director stressed that infection control practices are important. Every six months, a new vaccine is introduced to prevent seasonal influenza in developed countries and there is no universal vaccine that can safeguard against the virus. India is among the 170 countries closely monitoring the H1N1 virus everyday. Across the world, 200 people have developed a resistance to the drug used against H1N1 virus and what is of utmost importance is that general practitioners need to protect themselves while treating a swine flu patient as they are among the high-risk category, Mishra said.
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