SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Sindh province has remained pathetic when it comes to administration. From education to health, Sindh has been lagging far behind from other provinces. The situation in Thar is quite evident and speaks the volume of governance in Sindh. Similarly previous year Sindh has been hit hard by the Swine flu but no measures are taken by the Sindh Government. Even it could not increase the number of laboratories for Swine Flu tests. There is only a single laboratory in Karachi for Swine Flu tests. One laboratory is not sufficient to meet the needs of an entire province. At present, it is not even functioning satisfactorily. However, it has some modern machines for microbiological examination but due to technical faults, these are not able to carry out the testing process. No initiative has been taken to reinforce it and establish more laboratories in order to face the potential swine flu outbreak in the province and the country as a whole.
In 2009 Swine flu wreaked havoc across the world with more than 1 million deaths while over thousand cases were reported in Pakistan and half of them were reported in Sindh. There are once again news of swine flu outbreak in India, which it said could spill over to Pakistan and create a disaster-like situation. Swine flu is a contagious disease that spreads in the same way as the seasonal flu. The most common symptoms of swine flu are the same as seasonal flu such as cough, fever, sore throat, stuffy or running nose, body aches, headache, chills, shortness of breath, severe vomiting, abdominal pain and exhaustion. The people who suffer from swine flu can be contagious one day before they have any symptoms and as many as seven days after they get sick.
Diagnosing Swine flu is something urgent and necessary step and for this a single laboratory is indeed not enough. It is time for Sindh authorities to pay heed on the issue as the threat of Swine Flu is clearly looming. Sindh Government needs to set up number of microbiological laboratories with expert staff to tackle the approaching threat.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
