Swine flu under control, says Azad

Government today assured Parliament that swine flu was under control due to continued efforts of doctors and was limited to only a few individuals.

Government on Friday assured Parliament that swine flu was under control due to continued efforts of doctors and was limited to only a few individuals.

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"We have managed to limit such cases to a few individuals, considering the size of our population and country," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

Seeking to allay fears of the common man about the disease, he said "there are guidelines and constant review of the situation is being done."

He said though one swine flu test costs Rs 10,000, it was being done free in 19 laboratories across the country.

"We managed to identify positive cases (around 7,000) and put them on Tamiflu. This way we managed to limit the number of positive cases, otherwise this figure would have multiplied to seven million. I would like to give credit to our doctors," Azad said.

He said government has kept a stock of one crore Tamiflu doses ready and added that if there was a need for open sale of the medicine, it will be done as and when necessary.

Azad said the government has already trained doctors at the state level and has instructed states to train doctors at the district level also for tackling the virus.