New Delhi: After the sudden spurt in number of swine flu cases reported from various parts of the country, the health ministry has ordered faster procurement of diagnostic kits, medicines and vaccines for H1N1 influenza.
Many retailers have been found running out of stock due to this immediate surge and panic amongst patients and their kins.
According to a Times of India report, the anti-viral medicine Oseltamivir is available in most of the government-run hospitals and the shortage is being faced mainly by the private hospitals and retail drug stores. The observation is of past one week only.
Also Read: No need to panic, monitoring the situation: Nadda on swine flu
In the first ten days of February, around 216 deaths have been registered across the country due to the deadly disease. The total number of deaths due to the disease has touched 407 this year.
Most of the deaths have been registered in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Telangana only. Karnataka and Delhi have also registered significant number of H1N1 cases.
At a review meeting on Wednesday, health minister JP Nadda told the daily, "I am directly monitoring the situation and the health secretary takes a daily report from the affected states."
He assured that the government is ensuring all required measures to make the vaccine and test kits available at the drug stores. He said that the pharmaceutical companies have already been asked to supply more of the required medicines.
Ministry is also drafting guidelines for health workers who are in direct contact with the H1N1 patients.
Ministry told that as a proactive measure, additional Oseltamivir medicines and 10,000 N-95 masks are being procured. Also, a tender of 10,000 additional diagnostic kits has already been floated by the government.
As known from the distributors and retailers, the shortage is also because very few are licensed to sell the Schedule X prescription drug.
In Mumbai, out of 7000, only 100 chemists are licensed to sell this drug. Most of the private hospitals are not allowed to sell the drug which is one big reason of panic amongst the patients in distress.
Another distributor added that the shortage is also because most of the people want to take the medicine as a preventive measure.
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