A reluctant Ghulam Nabi Azad, the powerful central Health mantri, is moving with alacrity at the spread of panic over a swine flu that's speeding slower than the panic
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Covering up, finally: The writer is happy that the country has woken up to swine flu, even if late in the day pic/AFP |
A reluctant Ghulam Nabi Azad, the powerful central Health mantri, is moving with alacrity at the spread of panic over a swine flu that's speeding slower than the panic. After about six deaths due to the virus all over India, people have been driven by media frenzy into a season of fear. Not only are general practitioners flooded with patients fearing they have swine flu, psychiatrists are now dealing with the problem too. Now schools too are being shut on the mere hint of a single case. India is a panic-prone entity in this media age.
Mumbai being hit after Pune makes Maharashtra look like a hub for the H1N1 virus, with 27 cases being reported here. The BMC has already issued guidelines detailing precautions needed to be taken by the school authorities.
What is shocking the central Ministry of Health is how slovenly some states are reacting on the flu issue. Ashok Chavan took two crucial days before he swung into any real action. And even then his focus seems to be on how to get the private sector involved. No prizes for guessing why!
Meanwhile, with the Central government in Delhi and the Ministry of Health having pulled up its socks, it is now expecting cooperation from nine other ministries to handle the situation. Not many private hospitals have not been roped in to conduct tests and control the situation. The Home Ministry now is expected to use state security forces for containment of population in infected states and restrict gatherings at airports, railway stations, festivals and even funerals.u00a0 How practically will these plans be implemented is what we have to see or even how useful they will be. Clearly there are things to be done. And it's comforting that Azad is the man at the helm of things. A cool and confident workaholic u2014maybe he is what the bug needs to watch out for.
