Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Home quarantine silently spreads H1N1 flu
Pushpa Narayan, TNN 14 October 2009, 01:43am IST
CHENNAI: When the Tamil Nadu government banned home quarantine for A (H1N1) on Monday, many raised eyebrows. Now, the government tells them why:
Home quarantine, especially that of children, has been resulting in the silent spread of the flu, which was believed to have been fairly contained.
The eye-opener for the authorities came last week, when 18 students from Satchidananda Jothi Nikethan, a residential school at Kallar in Coimbatore district, reported with high-grade fever, running nose and sore throat. They all tested positive for A (H1N1).
"It's not unusual for a school to be a cluster of infections, but what shocked us was the source of the infection," said director of public health Dr S Elango. "We found that one student who was infected and advised home quarantine attended school after popping in Tamiflu. He infected several children," he said.
The state health department turned to the medical register for more analysis. "Till date, 1,606 people have been tested positive for the flu. Of these, 160 were on home quarantine. After a little more analysis, we found that many people had not followed the quarantine protocol strictly. We had no option but to cancel domestic quarantine," he said.
Health department fears that one person quarantined at home can infect at least three other family members, besides the maid and visitors. "We have found that family members don't discourage visitors. People get infected due to this," he said.
Meanwhile, the health department has directed pharmacies not to sell Tamiflu to individuals. Pharmacies can sell the drug only to hospitals, that too on double prescriptions.
So far 55% of A (H1N1) patients in the state have been found to be under the age of 20, most of them students. "There have been clear indications of the infection spreading among the young. While we are banning home quarantine, we are encouraging people to get admitted to government hospitals. An audit of H1N1 fatalities showed that almost all of the five deaths in the state had a history of late diagnosis," said health secretary VK Subburaj.
Reactions from the medical fraternity have been mixed. While one group of doctors have been stating that the state government has more experience in dealing with communicable diseases, the other says it is not wise on the part of the government to act independently. "Where are the resources in the government hospitals? Are they not excluding the power and potential of the private sector at one go based on stray instances? I feel it's impossible for any system to replace a family physician under whose care a patient can be very happy," said Dr V R Ranjith, a physician in Tambaram.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ntly-spreads-H1N1-flu/articleshow/5121750.cms
Pushpa Narayan, TNN 14 October 2009, 01:43am IST
CHENNAI: When the Tamil Nadu government banned home quarantine for A (H1N1) on Monday, many raised eyebrows. Now, the government tells them why:
Home quarantine, especially that of children, has been resulting in the silent spread of the flu, which was believed to have been fairly contained.
The eye-opener for the authorities came last week, when 18 students from Satchidananda Jothi Nikethan, a residential school at Kallar in Coimbatore district, reported with high-grade fever, running nose and sore throat. They all tested positive for A (H1N1).
"It's not unusual for a school to be a cluster of infections, but what shocked us was the source of the infection," said director of public health Dr S Elango. "We found that one student who was infected and advised home quarantine attended school after popping in Tamiflu. He infected several children," he said.
The state health department turned to the medical register for more analysis. "Till date, 1,606 people have been tested positive for the flu. Of these, 160 were on home quarantine. After a little more analysis, we found that many people had not followed the quarantine protocol strictly. We had no option but to cancel domestic quarantine," he said.
Health department fears that one person quarantined at home can infect at least three other family members, besides the maid and visitors. "We have found that family members don't discourage visitors. People get infected due to this," he said.
Meanwhile, the health department has directed pharmacies not to sell Tamiflu to individuals. Pharmacies can sell the drug only to hospitals, that too on double prescriptions.
So far 55% of A (H1N1) patients in the state have been found to be under the age of 20, most of them students. "There have been clear indications of the infection spreading among the young. While we are banning home quarantine, we are encouraging people to get admitted to government hospitals. An audit of H1N1 fatalities showed that almost all of the five deaths in the state had a history of late diagnosis," said health secretary VK Subburaj.
Reactions from the medical fraternity have been mixed. While one group of doctors have been stating that the state government has more experience in dealing with communicable diseases, the other says it is not wise on the part of the government to act independently. "Where are the resources in the government hospitals? Are they not excluding the power and potential of the private sector at one go based on stray instances? I feel it's impossible for any system to replace a family physician under whose care a patient can be very happy," said Dr V R Ranjith, a physician in Tambaram.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ntly-spreads-H1N1-flu/articleshow/5121750.cms