IMPHAL, March 13: Three persons tested positive for Swine Flu. Out of them, two have died while the other has been discharged after treatment.
This was stated by Health & Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonsing replying to a calling attention motion raised by Oinam Kendra MLA Dr I Ibohalbi Singh in the Manipur Legislative Assembly today.
He further said the first Swine Flu case in the State was officially detected on March 5. Three cases were confirmed to have tested positive.
Three more suspected cases were also reported. Out of them two tested negative while the test result of the third is awaited and the person is still kept at the isolation ward, he said.
He informed the House about the preventive measures taken by the Health Services Department. He said a monitoring cell has been opened up at the Health Services Department and further instructions have been given to open up similar monitoring cells in all districts of the State.
Arrangement to supply plenty of three-layer masks as a preventive measure was also mentioned by the Minister.
He said Health Services is also planning to organize public awareness programmes.
If anyone is suspected to be suffering from this sickness they should informed the monitoring cells through the provided telephone numbers. Arrangement has also been made for providing transportation for that person, the Minister said.
Isolation wards have been setup at District Hospitals including RIMS and JNIMS, he added.
MLA Dr I Ibohalbi Singh pointed out that instead of sending the samples at Ranbaxy SRL in Mumbai to test for swine flu at the cost of rupees five thousand per test, which also takes a lot of time for the result to come, it would be a better option to do the testing at Regional Medical & Research Centre at Dibrugarh in Assam.
He said if the samples are submitted to the Centre before 12 pm it is possible to receive the result by 6 pm on the same day.
He urged the government to open up surveillance centres at Moreh which is bordering Myanmar and Churachandpur which is bordering with Mizoram.
He also suggested to encourage the health workers and paramedical staffs etc by providing them with proper protection kits.