Those with mild fever will not be given Tamiflu; they will be put on paracetamol and told to rest at home; those with acute fever will be given Tamiflu and put under home quarantine.
The Maharashtra government has decided to do away with compulsory testing of patients who report swine flu symptoms.
NICD director Dr Shivlal, who led a team to Maharashtra yesterday, said patients in Pune, which has reported the maximum number of deaths so far, have been classified into three categories. They include those with mild fever who will not be given Tamiflu but would be on put on paracetamol and told to rest at home, and those with acute fever and fanigitis who would be given Tamiflu and put under home quarantine.
Meanwhile, a health official has warned that the country might be staring at its first swine flu cluster in Pune going by the large number of infected cases being reported there.
The infection level in Pune has almost reached the community level, director general of health services RK Srivastava told reporters here today.
"The way things are going, in Pune, sooner or later clusters will be detected," Srivastava said. He said in the spread of such diseases, a cluster is defined primarily as a group of people who have been found positive and none of them have brought the infection from
outside.
Srivastava said in case a cluster is formed, the community needs to be isolated and preventive medication needs to be administered to people around them. He said as the virus spreads slowly within the country, the same model the government has adopted in Pune of categorising patients might be implemented across the entire country.
"Only the old, children and those with pre-existing diseases will be hospitalised," Srivastava said, adding that people should not put pressure on doctors to hospitalise them.
A research by the health ministry on the total number of patients infected so far shows that 10% of those infected have been abroad, 20% through contact with infected people and 70% have been infected directly, he said. "The viral load is being established in society. This will lead to immunity, then the disease will decline," he said.
Srivastava said till now in India, the mortality was very less. "If the virus mutates suddenly then this might change," he said. The DGHS also said people need not wear masks if they are not suffering themselves, but should do so if they are family members of those infected or are medical practitioners dealing with such cases.
People should desist from buying masks indiscriminately as it puts pressure on existing stocks and those in need do not get them, he added.
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