Swine flu deaths breach 1000 mark
SHILLONG: The Centre is yet to respond to the State government’s request to send Oseltamivir to tackle possible outbreak of swine flu in the State.
The Centre has already sent one 1000 Oseltamivir ((Tamiflu) to Assam government. The Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Department has also sought the medicine from the Centre.
Stating this here on Friday, the Joint Director of Health Services Dr RO Budnah said that his department was awaiting response from the Centre as far as sending of all important medicine in concerned.
So far, no case of swine flu has been reported from any part of Meghalaya.
PTI adds from New Delhi: Meanwhile, swine flu deaths have breached the 1,000 mark with 40 more people succumbing to the H1N1 virus while the number of those affected crossed 18,000 on Friday with the government admitting that it was facing a shortage of laboratories for testing of the disease.
According to Health Ministry, the total number of deaths due to swine flu has reached 1,005, while the number of those affected was 18,105 till Thursday. Responding to questions on the issue in the Lok Sabha, Health Minister J P Nadda said, “We have 21 laboratories for testing swine flu. But that is not enough. We are planning to set up H1N1 testing laboratories in every state of the country and financial provisions are being made for it.”