KARACHI: A 57 year old man died in Lahore on Tuesday due to Swine Flu. He was admitted into a private hospital of Lahore a few days earlier.
According to the Secretary of Health Punjab, Jawad Rafique Malik, the man injected by swine flu, Altaf Hussain Shirazi belonged from the Bhalwal Tehsil of Sargodha district and was admitted in a private hospital of Lahore, where he died.
He added that the death of a 57 year old had been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) and help was being taken from the organization to prevent the spread of this deadly disease.
According to sources, a case has been registered against hospital authorities over a delay in issuing a report on his medical condition. It has been sent to the Department of International Health; blood samples of the hospital staff treating the patient and the patient’s family have also been taken for preventive measures.
Swine flu had been spreading in India since November, 2014. According to the Health Ministry of India, swine flu had taken more than 1,500 lives in India and just about 27,000 individuals were contaminated with the infection as to date, 15th March 2015.
Despite the fact that the Indian Government had started safety oriented measures and enhanced human services offices for treatment of the infected patients throughout the nation, swine flu is still observed in many states.
The cost of swine flu epidemic in India had already adversely affected its tourism and health sectors with future projections running into loss of billions of US dollars in revenues. Pakistan cannot afford such epidemic, as its human and economic cost could become unbearable for our fledgling economy and badly tarnish our image abroad, already reeling under the infamous polio syndrome.
Medical specialists including virologists said that Pakistan is not by any means ready to manage any airborne contamination like swine influenza.
Swine flu or H1N1 infection is an illness of the upper respiratory tract. Symptoms of swine flu include cold, cough, fever and fatigue.
The best way of the prevention of the disease is vaccines which can be used by anyone above six months of age, which have been introduced in both nasal sprays and inform of shots. Everyone, especially people with chronic medical diseases should take these vaccinations. The vaccinations do not have any major side effects except those of any other viral disease vaccinations.