SWABI, Jan 7: In the wake of non-availability of vaccine in the district the swine flu situation seems to be getting out of control, as the number of such patients has jumped to 12 after four more cases were confirmed positive by the National Institute of Health (NIH) on Friday.
A senior official at the district health department told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the report from the NIH, Islamabad, had confirmed four more positive cases of H1N1. He said that blood samples of the patients were recently sent to the NIH by officials of Shahmansoor Hospital Complex (SHC).
The official said that the four new positive cases, including two females, were from new regions and it was feared that the deadly virus would soon spread in the entire district. The outbreak of the disease has sparked panic in the area and residents have expressed concern over no response of the provincial and federal governments. They demanded early provision of vaccine and other precautionary steps by the health authorities to check the spread of the disease.
The SHC officials said that the first two confirmed cases were from Kala and Kotha region. An isolation ward had already been set up at the SHC after confirmation of the H1N1 virus by the NIH on Dec 27.
The new confirmed cases of swine flu are from Zakarya, Parmuli, Zaida and Maneri villages. The other swine flu-affected regions included Kotha, Kala, Panjpir, Gabasni, and proper Chota Lahor.
The new patients were identified as Pirzada of Maneri, Shirazi Begum of Zaida, Saddam Khan of Pirmuli and Zainat Begum of Zakarya.
The officials said that keeping in view the number of different affected areas there might be several other undocumented cases of swine flu. The health officials noted with concern more and more regions were falling in the affected areas list. They said that these scattered areas covered almost the entire district.
The health officials said that if urgent measures were not taken the virus would also spread to the periphery districts. “Extraordinary measures are needed to tackle the situation,” they said.
They said that presently vaccine was available for health staff only.
“People in great number have been demanding anti-swine flu vaccine, but the hospital has no stock for them at present,” the officials said and added that they had demanded vaccine from the provincial health department, but so far it had not been provided.
