Swine flu claims 138 lives in Gujarat in 2017, CM holds meeting

Ahmedabad: Swine flu has killed as many as 138 people in Gujarat since January this year, prompting Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to hold a review meeting on Saturday to take stock of the preparedness of the health authorities in tackling the disease.

"Total 138 people have died due to swine flu in Gujarat since January this year. Thirty one people have died in the first week alone," Gujarat Minister of State for Health Shankar Chaudhary said in a press release issued on Saturday.

Till August 11, total 1,344 persons tested positive for swine flu, of which 708 patients are still undergoing treatment, he said.

Ahmedabad is the worst-affected district with 37 deaths, followed by Rajkot, where 17 people died since January, the release said.

The chief minister held a meeting with senior health department officials to review district-level preparedness to tackle the disease, the release said.

"Rupani also held a video-conference with collectors and top health department officials regarding the preparedness of district administration in tackling the disease," it said.

Rupani later tweeted about his meetings with the health authorities.

"Instructed officials to ensure necessary measures for prevention, control and treatment of the swine flu and to create mass awareness about the disease," he tweeted after the meeting held at Gandhinagar.

"Appealing the citizens not to panic. We have sufficient treatment facilities, doctors and medicines available for swine flu in the state," he tweeted.

The state government said that 17,000 teams have begun intense door-to-door surveillance across the state with ASHA and Anganwadi workers as well as malarial surveillance squads.

Around 40,000 anganwadi workers and more than 5,000 MBBS doctors and 3,000 AYUSH doctors are part of the team.

The government has ensured that medical stores have sufficient medicines to tackle the disease, and ordered free Ayurvedic medicines to be provided to the patients, it said.

The state government also launched '104' helpline to provide information about this deadly disease.