At least six states put hospitals on alert after Centre flags mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China
The hospitals have been asked to immediately report any clustering of respiratory illnesses.
The Centre has asked all the states and union territories to report cases of serious respiratory illnesses among children and adolescents at district level in view of a surge in mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China.
There are once again global fears of another pandemic that experts believe is looming and could be worse than the Coronavirus that disrupted the world economies. Coronavirus is believed to be originated from China.
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India shares its borders with China and chances of a spread reaching India from the neighbouring country are always high. While there has not been any red flags so far, the government has taken lessons from the COVID outbreak and it is taking all the precautions.
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This, according to an Hindustan Times report, “is being done purely as a precautionary measure”.
“…so far no red flags have been seen but it is important to step-up the vigil. There is already a surveillance system in place for tracking respiratory illnesses owing to Covid-19, which will be made use of for further surveillance,” the report quoted a government official as saying.
Meanwhile, Union health secretary, Sudhansh Pant has also written to states, asking them to ensure cases of respiratory illnesses are monitored by the district and state surveillance units of Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), particularly among children and adolescents.
“The data of ILI and SARI is required to be uploaded on IDSP- IHIP portal particularly from the public health institutions including medical college hospitals. States also asked to send nasal and throat swab samples of patients with SARI, particularly of children and adolescents, to Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL’s) located in the States for testing for respiratory pathogens,” he wrote.
“The cumulative effect of implementation of these precautionary and proactive collaborative measures is expected to counter any potential situation and ensure the safety and well-being of the citizens,” he added.
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