Swine Flu: ‘Preparations underway’ to deal with possible outbreak

Health Department aware of the possibility of a swine flu outbreak in the coming days.

LAHORE: The Health Department of the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) is training health officers to cope with a possible outbreak of swine flu epidemic.

This was announced by executive district officer (Health) Umer Farooq Balouch at a workshop at the District Health Development Center (DHDC), Poonch Road, on Saturday.

He said the Health Department was aware that of the possibility of a swine flu outbreak in the coming days. He said all hospitals falling under the CDGL had been directed to treat people affected with the disease in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocol.

DHDC director Dr Ziaud Din said swine flu was a respiratory disease first diagnosed in pigs. He said it was caused by the H1N1 virus. The virus, he said, was capable of spreading at a high rate, yet the number of deaths it caused among pigs was not very high. “The virus spreads most rapidly in autumn and winter months,” he said.

Dr Zia said the symptoms of swine flu were similar to those of seasonal flu. “They may include fever, lethargy and decreased appetite. In some cases, patients suffer from a runny nose, throat inflammation, nausea and diaorrhea.”

He said the virus got passed on from pigs to humans and then spread among humans through physical contact, coughing or sneezing.

Dr Zia said the virus was not transmitted through eating of pork. “The H1N1 virus gets killed when pork is cooked at a temperature of 71ºC or more,” he said. Like other viruses, he added, swine flu virus may adapt to different environments.

He said it could also evolve into new viruses due to gene modifications. So far four basic subtypes of the type A swine flu virus had been identified, he added. These included H3N2, H3N1, H1N2, and H1N1.

Dr Zia said no vaccines to prevent an outbreak of the flu among humans had yet been developed. “There is one to prevent a spread among the pigs,” he said. “The only way to protect oneself from the flu is to take precautions,” he said.

He said people needed to make washing hands with soap and warm water a routine after coughing or shaking them with someone affected with the virus. Other precautions, he said, included use of masks in crowded places such as airports, train stations and markets.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2011.