Deccan Chronicle 11.09.2009

TN launches website for H1N1

Chennai
Sept. 10: Health minister M. R. K. Paneerselvam launched the state government’s new website for swine flu awareness, www.swineflutninfo.com at the suicide prevention programme on Thursday at the Government General Hospital. The website contains all you need to know about the disease, and also the contact details of the laboratories and hospitals treating swine flu.

The state health department is patting itself on the back, where its management of the H1N1 epidemic is concerned. In a release announcing the new swine flu awareness website that the Tamil Nadu government has floated, described as ‘another feather on the cap of the health department of Tamil Nadu’, the state is claims to be the first in India to initiate the containment and control of A(H1N1) influenza as early as March 2009 itself.

“The government has been able to contain the disease within Chennai and Coimbatore, and spread of the infection to the villages has been prevented totally," the release said.

“The government has taken steps to screen aircraft/railway passengers, contract tracing, arrangements for lab investigation, including approval for nine private laboratories across the state,” it said.

However, with the WHO issuing a serious alert across South east Asia, predicting a spurt in swine flu infections, and thousands of deaths due to the disease when the monsoon starts, it is to be hoped that the state will be able to further contain the virus.