Swine Flu in Pune

To sum it up so far… my rhetoric…

Pune has the highest number of postive cases in the country. Till very recently, only Naidu Hospital was authorized to conduct tests, then Aundh Chest Hospital was added to the list. Now 15 more locations have been authorized to collect samples. It took one death (the only one in the country) to wake up the administration.

However, from what is being said, the administration is still not conducting tests unless a link to the infected people is established. Sad. When my daughter was suffering from high fever, body ache, cold and sore throat, we called up Naidu Hospital to ask if we should take her there. They didn’t feel it necessary to conduct any tests on her, even though 15+ students of her school had already been detected as positive cases. The poor girl who lost her life, too, was apparently not in contact with any of the infected people. We never learn…

It took 13 positive cases to convince the management of my daughter’s school to down shutters for a few days. That too, they initially declared 4 days off, mockingly, as though they were doing us a favour. (They later extended the favour by keeping school closed for another week.) The meeting they had called for the parents, along with the Corporation Health officials, was more of a Press Conference, complete with photographers, videographers and journalists. Oh, and did I mention politicians too? And the chairman of the managing committee smirked throughout… Sick attitude. Well, they got their moment of fame… the highest number of cases detected in any school!!!

My condolences to Rida’s parents… and hope the administration takes concrete steps at least now.