Pakistan only regionalcountry to diagnose flu
ISLAMABAD: National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has achieved the capability of laboratory diagnosis of swine flu virus, Influenza A (H1N1) subtype, an official said yesterday. With the achievement, Pakistan has emerged as the only country in the whole East Mediterranean region of WHO having this capability.
“We have received primers — special reagents, which are used to diagnose H1N1 in a blood sample — from Centre for Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases, Atlanta, Georgia,” said Executive Director at the NIH Dr Birjees Mazhar Qazi.
He added the equipment used for conducting the test was already available at the institute.
Centre for Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases, Atlanta, had made the first diagnosis of influenza A (H1N1) case of the ongoing epidemic of the infection that reported to have affected as many as 42 countries till Saturday.
The NIH claimed to have sent Viral Transport Medium to all provincial health departments and AJK along with major tertiary care hospitals like Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences enabling them to send blood sample of a suspect to the NIH.
Swine influenza or ‘Swine Flu’ is a highly contagious respiratory disease of pigs caused by one of several Swine Influenza A viruses of H1N1 subtype. The virus is spread among pigs by aerosols, direct and indirect contact and asymptomatic carrier pigs.
Outbreaks in pigs occur year round. Sometimes swine influenza viruses from infected pigs cause disease in humans. Outbreaks and sporadic human infection with swine flu have been occasionally reported. It passes from person to person by airborne spread by sneezing, coughing or when people pick the virus from their hands predominantly in crowded populations in closed spaces such as cinemas, schools, buses, ships and institutions.
“The epidemic is alarming because Influenza A virus of H1N1 subtype containing swap genes emerged, as a new virus with new arrangements of genes and has capability of crossing over the species’ barrier.
It has also capacity of human to human transmission at a wide scale,” said Dr Qazi. He, however, added that the case fatality rate of H1N1 is comparatively low.
Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&sub...
