Ludhiana, December 17
Swine flu is spreading its tentacles in Punjab fast. With already 16 deaths and 116 positive cases reported from different parts, alarm bells have gone ringing.

Things have come to such a pass that isolation wards of Ludhiana’s multi-speciality hospitals, catering to urban as well as rural populace of the Malwa and Doaba regions are full and are now declining admission to patients.

Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), Ludhiana, refused admission to four patients in the past two days as all 12 beds in isolation wards were occupied.

Similarly, SPS Apollo Hospital too had to refuse admission to four patients in the past two weeks as their isolation ward was full to the capacity.

The recent deaths of swine flu patients from Jalandhar and Ludhiana has added to the panic amongst people as some people from Ludhiana, Mansa and Sangrur have even called up their relatives in the USA and Canada to send them the Tamiflu medicine through courier.

Vishav Sharma from Mansa who recently got married said: “We are not sure about the availability of the medicine here thus to be on the safe side I have asked my elder brother to arrange and send the medicine for the whole family from Canada”.

The calls to relatives are not just restricted to therapeutic medicine but some people have also ordered for the preventive vaccine against influenza H1N1 virus which is already being administered in American and European continents.

On the other hand, the NRIs from Punjab settled in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and UK too have postponed their visits to their native villages and cities. When asked about the insufficient number of ventilators in the state, Dr Deepak Bhatia, state nodal officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, said: “We are already working in the direction to make arrangements for ventilators and this will be taken care of in coming two days. However, we have medicine in abundance that can be administered to 50,000 patients in one go”.

Speaking on the screening and testing of patients, Dr Bhatia said screening was being done at even the subdivisional centres of the Health Department but PGI was the only centre having testing facility wherein approximately 30 samples were tested in one go. The reports were given within 24 hours but the time was likely to increase if the number of “suspected” cases goes up, he added.