Careless Hyderabad hospitals ruin swine flu swabs

Hyderabad: While evaluating the incidence of swine flu in the state, central health officials found that the swine flu testing swabs were improperly packed by private hospitals in the city that sent them.

While the central team was there, seven patients came with the swabs of their relatives and personally gave the swabs to the office of the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) at Nallakunta. The samples were sent by private hospitals in an open cardboard box and not in a vaccine kit or by observing cold chain procedures that ensure that the swabs are kept at the required temperature.

A senior health official explained, “Swabs are to be sent in cold chain where the temperature is controlled. The IPM, after sending the test results to the hospitals, has been continuously reminding hospitals that they must observe cold chain procedures but there has been no response. After the central team pointed this out, too, the state government has taken the matter seriously and has warned all hospitals to follow the guidelines.”

Apart from five major super speciality hospitals in the city, most other hospitals send the samples in plain boxes and not in refrigerated boxes.

IPM officials said they get 30 people queuing up every day since January to hand in the swabs as they are not willing to pay the transport and testing fees that hospitals charge, and which vary from '1000 to '1,500 per patient. Of the seven samples that came when the central team was in town, three swab kits were spoiled and IPM had to call the hospitals and ask for the swabs to be taken again.

After the report of the central team was submitted to the state government, a meeting was called with private hospitals on Tuesday. The concerned officials were told to follow proper guidelines and protocol vis-a-vis swine flu cases.

The hospitals have been told not to send patient's relatives, but work out a method whereby the samples can be collected and sent to the government institute for testing.

Telangana Superspeciality Hospitals' Association officials and doctors refused to comment on the subject. There have been 21 deaths in the state due to swine flu and more than 800 people have tested positive since August 2016, with the highest number of deaths being in January 2017 when 120 people tested positive.