Swine Flu: Telangana Congress demands Health Emergency

Hyderabad, Jan 21 (INN): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Vice-President Mohammed Ali Shabbir has demanded that the Telangana Government declare Health Emergency to effectively tackle the outbreak of Swine Flu in the State.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here on Wednesday, Shabbir Ali blamed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for the Swine Flu deaths in the State. He reminded that he held a presser on January 6 appealing the Chief Minister to conduct a review meeting with health officials to control the spread of Swine Flu. The media too promptly reported the cases on daily basis. However, the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues remained in denial mode and took light of the situation. “The Chief Minister woke up only after Swine Flu claimed 12 lives in last 20 days,” he alleged and held KCR directly responsible for those deaths. With 12 deaths and 221 Swine Flu cases in the month of January itself, on an average, he said 10 Swine Flu cases are being reported in the city and one person is succumbing to the dreaded disease every alternate day.

Shabbir Ali said while KCR was building castles in the air by promising to make everything ‘World’s Class’, the Swine Flu assumed alarming proportions due to total ignorance and now Telangana State has a ‘World Class’ impact of Swine Flu with maximum number of deaths in the country. Referring to the Chief Minister’s reported interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma on Wednesday, he said this panicky reaction itself is a confession that he failed to take effective measures to prevent spread of Swine Flu. “Whom will you punish now for the negligence? Will be it Deputy CM Rajaiah or the health officials?” he asked adding that accountability should be fixed for the loss of lives due to Swine Flu.

The Congress leader alleged that KCR and his cabinet colleagues denied occurrences of Swine Flu fearing political backlash. Advising them to keep the politics aside, at least for some time, he said with Telangana being the worst affected State in the country, people are now afraid of coming to Hyderabad due to the disease.

Meanwhile, during the press conference, Shabbir Ali also spoke to Dr. K. Subhakar, Senior Chest Physician, who is also the incharge of Swine Flu cases in Government Chest Hospital at Erragadda. Dr Subhakar told the Congress leader that a Central Team is visiting Hyderabad to take an overview of Swine Flu cases. Further, he said the Swine Flu vaccines were not available in the hospital and they need to be supplied by the Central Government.

The TPCC Vice-President said that vaccines and medicines which are now being supplied is an old stock supplied by the Centre in 2009-2010 when there was a spurt in Swine Flu cases. He said that the State Government did not even seek fresh stock of vaccines from the Centre. Instead, TRS Government went on denying the spread of Swine Flu.

Demanding that the State Government immediately declare Health Emergency, Shabbir Ali advised KCR to conduct a review meeting at Gandhi Hospital, supply vaccines and medicines at free of cost, launch a massive awareness campaign and ensure availability of doctors and nursing staff to properly attend to patients affected with Swine Flu. He also urged the TPCC’s Doctors Cell and other Congress workers to help the Swine Flu patients in their areas.

Shabbir Ali also wished speedy recovery for KCR’s wife Smt Shobha who has been admitted to a private hospital for fever.