Long distances, lack of test labs behind swine flu spike in Rajasthan :

1. Until January 13 this year, 49 people died of the disease across the country, and 1,694 cases were reported. Rajasthan topped the list with 31 deaths.

2. A big reason for the high incidence of swine flu in the state is the lack of testing facilities. There are no facilities to collect blood samples at primary or community health centres. “Blood samples can be collected at district, sub-divisional and satellite hospitals. At present, there is no system of blood sample collection at the PHC or CHC level.

3. The testing labs for swine flu are mostly at divisional headquarters and patients often have to cover a lot of distance before being diagnosed. This delay can result in infecting people around the patient. The delay is also putting the life of the patient at risk.

 4. The health department currently has 12 laboratories with swine flu testing facilities at hospitals under all seven medical colleges in Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Kota, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jhalawar along with the Desert Medicine Research centre in Jodhpur and four other private laboratories.

5. One private lab has also opened 50 testing facilities across the state. As per the Centre’s guidelines, testing for swine flu is only required for C-category patients with symptoms including breathlessness, chest pain and sputum mixed with blood

 Rajasthan Govt launches screening drive to contain Swine flu menace

• In the wake of rising case of Swine flu across the State, the Rajasthan Government has launched a special screening drive to contain the disease. A total of 49 people have died so far while 1,233 cases were found positive due to the viral disease.
• Of the total 5,367 samples collected this year, 1,233 were found positive and 49 deaths recorded so far.
•  It is a seasonal disease and the Government was taking all measures to contain the spread of the flu.

Swine flu :

Swine flu is an infection caused by one of the several swine influenza viruses (SIV), with the H1N1 strain being the most common across the country. H1N1 virus spreads when an individual touched an infected or breathes droplets of coughs and sneezes that are in the air.

The symptoms are same as the seasonal flu, also known as the viral fever. This includes a cough, sore throat, and body ache.

H1N1 flu is also known as swine flu. It's called swine flu because in the past, the people who caught it had direct contact with pigs. That changed several years ago, when a new virus emerged that spread among people who hadn't been near pigs.

Swine Flu Symptoms :

These, too, are pretty much the same as seasonal flu. They can include: Cough, Fever, Sore throat, Stuffy or runny nose, Body aches, HeadacheChills, Fatigue.

Treatment :

Like the regular flu, swine flu can lead to more serious problems including pneumonia, a lung infection, and other breathing problems.

Some of the same antiviral drugs that are used to treat seasonal flu also work against H1N1 swine flu. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu), peramivir (Rapivab), and zanamivir (Relenza) seem to work best, although some kinds of swine flu don’t respond to oseltamivir.