Saraf stands by SMS hospital’s swine flu report on Rajasthan governor

State health minister Kali Charan Saraf said on Saturday he stands by the Sawai Man Singh Hospital’s laboratory report that said Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh’s throat swab sample tested positive for H1N1 virus.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of a medical conference, Saraf said, “Governor Kalyan Singh’s throat swab sample has tested positive for H1N1 or swine flu.”

“After being tested negative at Delhi’s Apollo Hospital, we got four other samples tested at two private-run laboratories where the samples were to be positive for the viral flu. The laboratory at the SMS hospital is a standard laboratory and there is no chance of any errors,” he said

When questioned that despite the governor testing positive for H1N1 influenza according to the SMS hospital’s report, he was meeting people and there can be chance of people getting infected with the virus, Saraf said: “Swine flu was detected in the early stage and the SMS hospital alerted him. Today, the governor is healthy...”

Singh was diagnosed with H1N1 symptoms at the state-run Sawai Man Singh hospital on March 4 and was rushed to Delhi to get re-test done at the Apollo Hospital, where he tested negative for the H1N1 virus on March 5.

The governor’s secretariat in a statement, said it has taken serious note of the investigation report submitted by the SMS Hospital and asked for a high-level inquiry into how the hospital had given a positive report.

The state government had formed a three-member committee to investigate into the matter on March 5 and the committee submitted its report on Friday to the minister.

The report stated that “there is no ground on which the report of the SMS Medical College can be labeled as incorrect”.

The committee comprised secretary medical education Anand Kumar, SMS Medical College principal Dr US Agarwal and Dr RK Maheshwari from the microbiology department

Saraf on Friday in the assembly said the SMS hospital has ultramodern equipment and trained technicians under the supervision of medical experts who test the throat swab samples of people with suspected symptoms of H1N1.

He further said that the inquiry committee was directed to re-test four positive samples in a private laboratory and all the four samples tested positive for H1N1 virus.

“The quality control of swine flu testing laboratory of the SMS Medial College is vetted by the National Institute of Virology in Pune,” he said.

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