Was travelling from Chennai to Madurai for a Market visit a month back. And, my co-passenger was a gentleman working with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Department.As we started discussing on the recent Swine Flu incidents in India, i was astonished to hear that the people posted in Airports had a tough time to monitor, control and make travellers arriving inside the Country, to comply for the test and his Department's unpreparedness to combat the challenges in the coming months. Now, a month later, with the first death reported, it is becoming a major concern for the nation.
As much talked about, is the Ministry's laggardness in handling the entire episode. The recent death of a young student in Pune as well the statements of the Union Health Minister, Mr.Azad does not look like "all is well" in the Country.
We are a nation with a billion people living in close contacts to each other, and with the upcoming monsoon in many parts of the country, the spread is going to be much faster. Palpable is the sorry state of affairs of the government health centers,where the testing is done. Need of the hour is the collaboration of the Public and Private health sectors, coming together with the NGOs to educate the public through proper literature's, the preventive mechanism. Equally,the affected public have a moral responsibility to stay quarantined, if affected.If required, States should pass law to hold the affected people isolated from the mass. Travellers from swine flu affected nation should also make all possibility to post-pone their travel to India, if suspected with the flu, to avoid spreading of the Flu inside the nation(for the spread has happened due to the incoming travellers).
The health ministry has a huge role to play.The production of the TamiFlu should be increased and should be made available at drug stores to be sold against doctors prescription. The Private hospitals should be geared up to handle the testing and early treatment of the affected patients.Cost of treatment should be subsidized by the Ministry of Health-so that there is no one who will lose life due to affordability of quality treatment.And, research should be speeden up to find alternatives to kill the flu, in case, they are not muted and become immune to Tamiflu, in future. N95 mask, which is recommended for preventing Swine Flu (that could prevent 95%) should be made available across the country within the next four weeks time.
With WHO having raised the Influenza Pandemic Alert to level 6-which is the highest level, it shows how fast the influenza spreads and affects the health of millions of people, globally.
The Ministry of Health, Government of India, the Private Hospitals and the Public and state machinery's should come together to coordinate, communicate better and prevent the spread and ensure, we, as a nation are geared up as quickly as possible to stop getting affected, rather than blaming each other.
All said, the role of the Health Ministry is very crucial and most important and hence, it could have been still better handled in a more responsible and timely manner by the Health Minister. Let the health minister stop giving statements and start getting his people at all levels, to work faster, and with more care and concern in the coming days.
The role of the media should be appreciated-which is doing a commendable job in terms of communicating more news about Swine Flue-at the same time, they have to be cautious to ensure they do not overstep the border, which may result in creating more panic across the nation, as it happened in Pune.
No comments:
Post a Comment