Palike ups the ante against swine flu

In the wake of the increasing number of swine flu cases and deaths in the City and fear psychosis among the people, the BBMP health officers are going door to door, creating awareness about the viral disease.

They are also administering preventive medicines to the family members and neighbours of patients who have tested positive for swine flu and are cautioning people to beware of those administering medicines to even those not affected.

BBMP chief health officer Dr Vatsala told Deccan Herald that the Palike officers had been alerting people if someone in their neighbourhood tested positive for the flu.

“We recently got a complaint from Jayanagar 5th block. So, we called up the public health officer of that area. The team there is administering preventive medicine to the family members of the patient and to residents of at least 100 houses nearby. The dosage depends on the severity,” he said.

“We are also making people aware in all the wards of the City about the disease and the precautions to be taken. Special attention is being paid where there are children, pregnant women, senior citizens, diabetics, post-cancer and organ transplant patients and those suffering from cold or cough.

If people find someone administering them free medicines, they should demand the person’s identity proof and inquire with the BBMP about him or her. We cannot give the medicine to everyone as it is expensive and we also have to supply it to private hospitals,” she said.

Ashwath  Narayan, Registrar, Karnataka Board of Homoeopathic System of Medicine, said they were not distributing any medicine to people at their homes. Apart from Prophylactic, there are also precautionary homoeopathic medicines like Influenzium and Squilla. Just one dose of the precautionary medicine is sufficient, but it should be taken only after consulting a doctor, as each case is individualised and treated, he said.

There are many people doing brisk business by selling  precautionary and preventive drugs which are not authorised. People in panic are buying them and they should be stopped, Narayan said.