Chandigarh, August 18
With the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) severely overburdened with testing H1N1 virus samples from across the country, the number of suspected patients in the region awaiting their results is now running into hundreds.

Interestingly, while PGI authorities today claimed that following NICD’s instructions they had already set up a testing facility in Chandigarh two days ago, none of the states the PGI centre is supposed to cater to has been informed about the facility.

Some of the samples sent from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir have been with the NICD for more than a week and dealing with the contacts of the suspected patients is becoming a cause of worry for the health authorities.

“We are giving Tamiflu to the suspected patient but cannot begin the process of giving prophylaxis treatment to the contacts of the patient till it is confirmed that he or she is suffering from H1N1,” said Dr Deepak Bhatia, nodal officer for the pandemic in Punjab.

Tracing of contacts is one of the most arduous exercise undertaken by the health authorities once a patient is confirmed with the disease. “At times one patient has over 300 contacts. Each one has to be traced and given prophylaxis treatment,” explained Dr Bhatia. Those tending to the suspected patients, including family members, are also a worried lot awaiting the results.

Under tremendous pressure to get the results in time, state nodal officers are now calling up the NICD to get “at least some results”. “We managed to get five results yesterday and another 10 results are awaited,” said Dr Bhatia. Dr HC Gera, nodal officer for Chandigarh, said he too was trying to get as many samples cleared as was possible today.

NICD authorities are working round-the-clock to clear as many samples as is possible in a day. “I believe the PGI facility would have begun today and samples from this region can be handled there,” said Dr Shashi Khare, Head of the Microbiology Division, NICD, New Delhi.

The NICD director had earlier this month announced that the PGI, Chandigarh, would be one of the 16 additional testing facilities in government institutes that the NICD would help set up to facilitate H1N1 testing at the regional level.

Sources add that the PGI could not start the facility as it was waiting for equipment to arrive from the Pune NICD. However, the PGI Director, Dr KK Talwar, today said the facility was functional for the past two days.

But no one seems to have informed the state health authorities about this facility. Nodal officers of the pandemic in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh said they had no information that fresh samples had to be sent to the PGI. The nodal officer in J & K, Dr Shasqat Khan, however, said he had been told about the PGI centre being functional and samples were being sent there.