Pune’s tragedy has lessons for India

We have managed, once again, to make a national disaster out of a ‘mild flu’ virus, writes Dr Anita Kar, a researcher affiliated to the University of Pune and the United Grants Commission

A few youngsters from Pune schools, who had gone for an academic programme to the US, brought back the virus and introduced it into their schools. Viral disease outbreaks usually arrive acutely, last for six to eight weeks and disappear. We can just about recall the chaos of the bird flu and SARS. Just when the virus appeared to be harmless, Pune experienced the tragedy of the death of a young girl. The child developed the most dangerous sequel to a viral infection of the lungs — pneumonia — and passed away.

Meanwhile, as the government became aware that people were refusing to go for isolation to the government hospitals, a top official from the government announced that people would not be quarantined till a positive test result was received. The H1N1 control rationale of this decision remains baffling, since a person with flu-like symptoms would be infectious and spreading the virus amongst close contacts.

In diametric contrast to this decision, the Maharashtra government implemented the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 (incidentally one of the earliest disease control acts to be implemented in British India), which allows the government to forcibly quarantine flu patients. 

So what lessons do we learn from the swine flu outbreak apart from the fact that India lacks public health leadership? Firstly, the primary requirement in times of a disease outbreak is proper information dissemination through a designated media officer so that the public is not frightened out of its wits by a deluge of disparate information.

Secondly, the government has to wake up to the fact that private hospitals and services are more attractive to people than the government hospitals. Thus, any kind of disease control activity has to be done hand-in-hand with the private sector, involving them in control plans. 

Finally, the H1N1 virus has circulated amongst the upper socio-economic strata of Pune—— children of affluent schools and affluent professionals some of whom can afford foreign travel. It is necessary for to remember that if the mild H1N1 virus reaches a malnourished child in rural India, the consequences of the epidemic would be much more disastrous than what we have witnessed.

The author is a reader (health sciences), and coordinator (UGC Innovative Programme in Health Sciences) at the School of Health Sciences, University of Pune