Hospitals advised to prepare for influx of swine flu patients
Friday, 14 August 2009
Government hospitals in Bangladesh have been advised by IEDCR to prepare their outdoor patient wards for a potential influx of swine flu patients. The advice follows reports in the Indian media of the eighteenth fatality from the virus in the neighbouring country.
"Doctors from Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Sir Salimullah Medical College hospital are now receiving additional training," Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told bdnews24.com Thursday.
"Training will also be given serially to all doctors in the country," said Dr Mahmudur Rahman adding Bangladesh also has adequate stocks of flu drug, Tamiflu.
Two more cases of swine flu were confirmed in Bangladesh Thursday, taking the number of detected cases in the country to 36. According to IEDCR, 31 individuals infected with the H1N1 virus have now made a full recovery, while five more remain under surveillance.
Twenty-four of the confirmed cases were infected overseas and the remainder contracted the virus within the country, according to the IEDCR.
He said the newly confirmed cases are a mother and her child who had recently arrived in the country from Singapore.
Screening measures were recently beefed-up in the country's 11 land ports, with Indian media reporting fatalities and over a thousand confirmed cases.
According to the World Health Organisation, as of August 13 over 1,60,000 cases of swine flu have been detected in 161 countries worldwide, with 1,154 recorded fatalities.
WHO declared a global H1N1 flu pandemic on June 11, while the health ministry confirmed the first case in Bangladesh on June 19.
Symptoms of the virus include fever with high temperature and respiratory problems. IEDCR advises schools and offices to grant leave to anyone who displays symptoms of the flu. It also advises people to refrain from spitting and to wash their hands regularly to curb the spread of the swine flu virus.
"Doctors from Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Sir Salimullah Medical College hospital are now receiving additional training," Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told bdnews24.com Thursday.
"Training will also be given serially to all doctors in the country," said Dr Mahmudur Rahman adding Bangladesh also has adequate stocks of flu drug, Tamiflu.
Two more cases of swine flu were confirmed in Bangladesh Thursday, taking the number of detected cases in the country to 36. According to IEDCR, 31 individuals infected with the H1N1 virus have now made a full recovery, while five more remain under surveillance.
Twenty-four of the confirmed cases were infected overseas and the remainder contracted the virus within the country, according to the IEDCR.
He said the newly confirmed cases are a mother and her child who had recently arrived in the country from Singapore.
Screening measures were recently beefed-up in the country's 11 land ports, with Indian media reporting fatalities and over a thousand confirmed cases.
According to the World Health Organisation, as of August 13 over 1,60,000 cases of swine flu have been detected in 161 countries worldwide, with 1,154 recorded fatalities.
WHO declared a global H1N1 flu pandemic on June 11, while the health ministry confirmed the first case in Bangladesh on June 19.
Symptoms of the virus include fever with high temperature and respiratory problems. IEDCR advises schools and offices to grant leave to anyone who displays symptoms of the flu. It also advises people to refrain from spitting and to wash their hands regularly to curb the spread of the swine flu virus.