Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad: Amid the rising cases of Swine flu in Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani today held a high level meeting in this regard and instructed all the district collectors to take appropriate actions for prevention of the spread of the contagious decease caused by H1N1 virus, its treatment and awareness.

Meanwhile Minister of state for Health Shanker Chaudhary who participated in the meeting later said that the total number of deaths caused by Swine flu this year so far was 170 which was much less than the figures of 2015. He also said that a special ambulance free service 104 on the lines of earlier existing 108 for the cases of flu/swine flu started for immediately taking them to the nearest special ward for check up and treatment. The government has also set up 9 labs for the free testing of the decease.

Chaudhary said that 17000 medical teams have been activated across the state for check up and treatment of the decease. A total of around 2000 medical institutions and 5000 doctors have been involved in it. So far the checkup of around 3 crore persons have been done to screen the possible cases. He said that a total of 1344 swine flu positive case have been reported across the state this year. Special wards have been set up in hospitals across the state. The availability of medicine Tamiflu has been ensured.

Chaudhary also claimed that the cases are likely to see some rise for around one more week owing to change in weather. He urged people to take precautions to keep a check on its spread. He also urged media to play a positive role in spreading awareness about the decease and steps necessary to prevent it including not visiting crowded places in case of an attack of flu. He also said that special care should be taken of children and in case of flu and fever, no chances should be taken.

Health Commissioner Jayanti Ravi on the occasion said that the state government has detailed taluka/district wise breakup of the deaths and positive cases.

Earlier during the meeting CM Rupani and Chaudhary interacted with collectors of various districts through video conferencing.

Currently cases of swine flue deaths are being reported from almost all parts of the state but Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Saurashtra and Kutch were seemingly worst affected.

Notably the decease is called swine flu because in the past, the people who caught it had direct contact with pigs. It starts like a common flu but if not treated in time turns fatal with complications like respiratory issues and high fever.

DeshGujarat