Till recently, only samples of hospitalised and critically ill patients were tested for H1N1 virus (swine flu). However, with as many as 4,350 cases and 449 deaths being reported across the state, private laboratories on Wednesday made a strong case for making such tests available to non-hospitalised patients with suspected H1N1 symptoms, too.
Initially, Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) was the sole laboratory, which was testing throat swab samples to confirm the H1N1 virus.
However, with the increasing number of patients, the state designated as many as 23 laboratories, such as SRL, Golwilkar, among others, to perform the tests.
According to the government guidelines, the samples of ‘C’ category patients, who were critical and hospitalised, were required to be tested.
Recently, laboratories under Bombay and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations also started testing samples that were referred by clinicians to patients showing H1N1 symptoms and on whom the line of treatment using other antibiotics had failed.
Dr M S Diggikar, acting joint director of health who was present at the meeting, said, earlier, there were restrictions on the availability of these tests for other category patients.
“Now, based on the clinicians’ strong suspicion of H1N1 virus, he or she can recommend that the sample can be tested at a state designated lab. There are eight such laboratories performing these tests in Pune. Laboratories, however, have admitted that they exercised restraint in providing these tests for the category of patients other than those recommended by the government. Today’s meeting urged that there was a need to provide these tests for persons who had H1N1 symptoms but were not hospitalised,” she said.
The commercially available test kit is validated by NIV and provided to the laboratories to conduct tests to confirm or rule out the presence of H1N1 virus. Labs also urged the state to bring down the rate of the test, which is approximately Rs 5,200.
Dengue, malaria cases rising
State health authorities said on Wednesday that as many as 718 cases of dengue have been detected since January, with registration of three deaths, two of which were from Pune. Between January and July, 8,255 cases of malaria have been reported, with a majority of them in Greater Mumbai (2,611) and Gadchiroli (2,539). In the PMC areas, 242 cases of dengue have been found positive and the authorities are conducting several surveys to identify breeding sites.
Residents have also started responding. For instance, authorities at the Indrayani international School recently alerted the PMC about the mosquito breeding site near their campus. Principal Nikita Damle also pointed out that the teachers and students were involved in an awareness campaign about the disease.
