Airport Testing for Swine Flu Futile

At the time when the H1N1 Swine flu pandemic was not established within India or as widespread all over the country, it perhaps made sense to test people at the airport as they come in from abroad. This was also the reason that the infection was a little slower to infiltrate into India on a large scale. However, as far back as August, the WHO had said that airport screening should be discontinued, as pointed out in an earlier post on this blog.

Also according to an article published in the Hindustan Times, as many as 225 doctors and 172 paramedics are still engaged in screening passengers as they arrive into India. Each day about 50,000 passengers at 22 international airports all over the country are subject to such testing.

The efficacy and requirement of such testing is certainly questionable at this point of time and at this stage of the Swine flu pandemic in the country. There are many reasons for this:

• Statistics now show that less than 2% of the people diagnosed with Swine flu in India have a history of foreign travel. This is to say that people in India are contracting Swine flu domestically not from abroad so there is really no point in checking if individuals coming into India are swine flu positive or not.
• The Swine flu virus is now said to be established in India and the major source of infection is domestic.
• Health care and medical resources in India are precious and inadequate and they could be put to better use than having hundreds of doctors and paramedics involved in the pointless activity of screening passengers at airports. These resources could be far better utilized elsewhere.
• The WHO has said that containment measures at this stage of the pandemic, (Stage 7) are of limited value since the infection is disseminated and spreading at the community levels as is the case now in India.

The criticism leveled at the airport screening process is that the government is continuing with this exercise which is essentially one of futility, because they want to be seen as doing something.

Meanwhile the death toll in the country from this disease is 530 and the total number of people infected with the swine flu virus is 15,726.  The number of positive cases in Maharashtra is 3,828 and in Delhi the number of infections is 3,837 with 62 new cases being reported yesterday.

Related Posts:

1. Airport Screening Of H1N1 To Be Stopped?
2. Swine Flu Screening In Goa
3. Swine flu death toll over 450, Bangalore Doctors test Positive
4. What India Should Do To Fight Against Swine Flu?
5. AP Showing Swine Flu Decline, Maharashtra Gearing up for Second Wave
6. Swine Flu Isolation Surveillance Systems at Ambaji Fair