Give best treatment: HC to govt

Hearing a Public Interest Litigation by City-based advocate S Vasudevan and Shankar Bhat, who have sought directions to initiate preventive measures on war footing, the division bench comprising Chief Justice P D Dinakaran and Justice V G Sabhahit directed the government to act swiftly by providing required facilities to the patients across the State.

The Bench has also directed the State to seek co-operation from the private sector in this regard.

Earlier, during the hearing, former MLA K N Subbareddy, who appeared before the Bench, sought swine flu screening for High Court advocates and employees. He pointed out that screening for the flu has been carried out at Raj Bhavan too.

The petitioner, S Vasudevan, sought immediate measures to control the spread of swine flu. He pointed out that despite the Government’s direction, private hospitals are turning suspected H1N1 cases away.

The authorities of Health Department and High Court medical officers, when summoned by the Chief Justice submitted that the matter is not serious, but blamed the media for blowing up the issue.  “It is a simple influenza, which subsides even without any medicine, within three to five days, it is just a media-created hype,” said Dr Kashinath Dixit, medical officer at High Court.

Masks, pills
When Vasudevan raised the issue of scarcity of masks and tamiflu pills, the authorities said that only those attending to the patients need to use masks, and the tablets are required only for confirmed cases.

Lakshminarayana Rao, Counsel for another petitioner Bhat, said that media cannot be blamed, but suggested that the immediate action be taken to prevent panic due to flu.
Chief Justice Dinakaran said, “The flu is creating fear psychosis, it is no use finding fault. We should think of how to ensure confidence among the people. Education of the masses is necessary to prevent panic-stricken situation. People, when they gather around, do not think of anything else but swine flu and whether they will get another holiday.”

Usha Vasunkar, Director, Health department, submitted information on the measures taken to prevent the disease. She said that the district health officers have been provided with the required doses of tamiflu tablets and N-95 masks. She said, that the patients have been classified into three divisions, where those with suspects will be given ‘tamiflu’ tablets, while the swab test will be done for all suspects.