Four new H1N1 suspects raise toll to 246

MULTAN: Four new suspects have been admitted to Nishtar Hospital, increasing the total number of H1N1 patients to 246 on Friday, said the health officials. Talking to mediamen, Nishtar Hospital’s focal person Dr Attaur Rehman said that out of the total admitted suspects, 122 were H1N1 positive.

Four new admitted suspects belonged to Khanewal and one from Muzaffargarh. He said an extensive meeting on H1N1 was held in chair with Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khwaja Imran Nazir. It was told in the meeting that virus would be overcome in the next two weeks. The meeting has also decided expediting special monitoring of H1N1 virus affected districts on daily basis and special teams have already been dispatched to respective districts. The minister has directed the Punjab Healthcare Commission to bound all private hospitals immediately to report H1N1 victims and ensure their shifting to public hospitals. The health ministry has appealed to the public to contact doctors forthwith when initial symptoms of virus appear in suspects. The minister told the meeting that Flu Filtration Clinics are working properly while related medicines and vaccines are available in bulk at all public hospitals.