Gujarat govt sets up a task force to deal with Swine flu spread

Gujarat government has set up a task force to fight against swine flu, which is slowly spreading in the state. The task force is headed by Additional Chief Secretary A K Joti. The task force will have principal secretary health, executive director of state disaster management authority and deputy director of epidemic.

The government has also appointed health department’s deputy director Dr. Sudhir Gandhi as a nodal officer for coordination of medical services. Gandhi will be in touch with the government of India’s Health department, Indian Council of Medical Services, important local hospitals and related authorities.

So far, 10 positive cases of swine flu have been registered in the state. “Of total 54 suspected cases, 35 were found negative, 10 are positive while in 9 cases, we are still waiting for the laboratory test results,” state Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas told mediapersons here.

“The training for district medical officers, doctors, technicians is underway, Isolation wards are being set up in various hospitals as per the WHO guideline. A laboratory to test H1N1 virus has been set up at B.J.Medical hospital under bio safety level-3 protection,” Vyas added.