Awareness meeting on swine flu held

TINSUKIA, Aug 30: An awareness meeting on swine flu was held at Khonsa recently, in which HoDs and health workers participated. Tirap DC, Ankur Garg who presided over the meeting while appreciating the DMO and his staff for taking the initiative, asked the people to take personal care and told them not to panic. He said that, doctors were aware of the situation and were competent enough to tackle any eventualities. He asked the HoDs to convey to their staff the basic knowledge on how to protect oneself from being infected by swine flu.

Dr P Rakshit, SMO and District Surveillance Officer in his power-point presentation on swine flu said that, swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by a type of influenza virus adding that, human infection can happen– pig to human and human to human. He said, the main reason for panic among the people was because swine flu is very contagious and that medicines were not available in the market. He further cautioned the people from buying medicines from the market for common cold and cough as it may prove to be counter-productive.

Earlier, in his welcome address Dr S Ronya, DMO threw light on the origin of swine flu and asked the people to be aware of ways and means to protect themselves. He however told the people not to panic, as all required measures have been taken by his department to face the situation. Dr HK Dutta, SMO also spoke on the occasion. THE SENTINEL