Two days after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced that it was closely monitoring the outbreak of H9N2 and cluster of respiratory illnesses in China that was flagged by World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry has advised States and UTs to immediately review public health and hospital preparedness measures. A PIB report stated that the exercise includes review of availability of HR, hospital beds, drugs and vaccines for influenza, medical oxygen, antibiotics, personal protective equipment, testing kits and reagents, functionality of oxygen plants and ventilators, infection control practices in health facilities, at a senior level.
The Ministry stated though there was no need for any alarm, it has proactively decided to review the preparedness measures as a matter of abundant caution in view of the ongoing influenza and winter season that results in an increase in respiratory illness cases.
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The Union Health Secretary advised the States/UTs to implement ‘Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in the context of COVID-19’ and asked to ensure that the trends of ILI/SARI should be closely monitored by the district and state surveillance units of Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), particularly of children and adolescents. Further, the data of ILI/SARI is required to be uploaded on IDSP- IHIP portal particularly from the public health institutions including medical college hospitals. States also asked to send nasal and throat swab samples of patients with SARI, particularly of children and adolescents, to Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL’s) located in the States for testing for respiratory pathogens. The cumulative effect of implementation of these precautionary and proactive collaborative measures is expected to counter any potential situation and ensure the safety and well-being of the citizens.
Recently, information shared by WHO has indicated an increase in respiratory illness in northern parts of China. This is predominantly attributed to usual causes like Influenza, Mycoplasma pneumonia, SARS-CoV-2 etc. As per WHO, the release of Covid-19 restrictions coinciding with the onset of winter season in addition to cyclical trend of respiratory illnesses such as Mycoplasma pneumonia have led to this surge. While WHO has sought additional information from Chinese authorities, it is assessed that there is no cause for any alarm at the moment.
Read more: Reported cluster of respiratory illness in children in Northern China: WHO
