Health officials on high alert

 
The department will start screening and treatment camps at five important tourist locations in city starting Oct 15. These camps at Mysore palace, the zoo, railway station, Chamundi hills and the Dasara exhibition grounds will screen the tourists and visitors for the contagious infections and illness like Influenza A H1N1, dengue, Chikungunya and others.

Each of these camps will function with doctors deputed in two shifts between 8 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 8 pm. Each shift will have a doctor, a house surgeon, a staff nurse and a group D employee. An ambulance would be stationed in each of the camps to attend and quickly react to emergencies.

Dr Nagaraj, District Surveillance Officer told Deccan Herald that the camps would have necessary drugs, including tamiflu tablets, symptomatic drugs and thermoflash.
These camps would also function as information centres for the visitors and tourists. The people below the age group of five years and above 65 years fall in the high risk group. The regnant women, those with low immunity, kidney, cancer and heart ailments, Asthma could also be considered under the high risk group, he said.

“The gloomy and rainy weather in the past two months has increased the number of contagious diseases. Though there is a prevalence rate of A H1N1, it has been effectively tackled streamlining the detection and treatment. Many smaller hospitals have also joined the league of bigger hospitals in treating A H1N1, even as people’s fear has come down. Screening and treatment for H1N1 is assured in all general hospitals in all the taluks. There is more awareness among the people now and less fear,” he says.

The Mysore district reported 45 cases(28 in Mysore city) of A H1N1 between January 1 and Sept 31 out of the 308 swab samples collected from across the district. All the taluks reported the Influenza except T Narasipur.