Supriya Mishra, wife of the Bargarh district BJD president Pravat Aditya Mishra becomes the first victim of swine flu who died VSS Medical College Hospital Burla on Wednesday. Supriya was admitted in a private nursing home at Burla couple of days back after she fell ill. A team of doctors visited the patient after her swab test confirmed positive of swine flu. The patient was than shifted to VSS Medical college hospital late in the night and kept in an isolated word for observation. She how ever died on Wednesday morning.

Source said, the death of the lady affected with swine flue has created panic in entire Burla town VSS medical authority. The Hospital authority tried make a full-proved arrangement to tackle the situation. The authority is taking step to accumulate the vaccine and medicine for the swine flu patients. “We have decided to take measure to tackle the situation”, the superintendent of the VSS medical college hospital Dr. GS Dash said.

The death of the lady in ‘swine flu’ has created panic in the Burla and near by area. Even the doctors do not feel safe inside the Hospital after the incident. How ever Hospital does not adequate vaccine for the staff and doctors. Even the hospital does not have face mask for its staff. There is also scarcity of swine flu vaccine and mask in the marker.

Ironically the incident has proved the state health minister’s home town Bargarh is also not free from swine flu. The minister who was scheduled to visit Sambalpur and Bargarh on Wednesday had to cancel his programme after a possible swine flu epidemic in the state. “I cancelled my Sambalpur and Bargarh tour on Wednesday because of my presence in Bhubaneswar. I have instructed senior heath officials to ready to tackle the situation”, Health minister Prasanna Acharya said while talking to the TOI on Wednesday.

It is a boon for the Homeopaths in Sambalpur over the past few days as people continues to purchase homeopathic medicine to prevent of ‘swine flu’ as government fails to supply adequate quantity mask and swine flu vaccine despite demands from several forums. Taking the benefit of the situation, some unscrupulous shop owners are allegedly selling the vaccine at a higher price to their reliable costumers.

“There is less supply of ‘swine flu’ vaccine injection and mask in the open market. What ever supply is there it is restricted to one and two shops. So when supply becomes less, possibility of selling at a higher price can not be ruled out. However we hope changes in the situation after supply of adequate amount of vaccine and mask in a day or two’’, an official of Drug controller office of Sambalpur said.

It may be mentioned here that Supriya Mishra, a lady patient and wife of Bargarh BJD president died in swine flu on Wednesday while undergoing treatment in VSS medical College hospital. Another 3 patients including an employee of GM College and one Sanjukta Panda of Burda village of Bargarh district have been found positive H1N1 virus in their swab tests. They have been admitted in the isolated word of VSS medical college hospital.

“The conditions of the patients are stable and treatment is under progress. We have not received any new patients so far”, a doctor of VSS medical college hospital said.

On the other hand the scarcity in the vaccine and mask in the open market has forced the people to opt for homeopathy medicine. Although experts say the homeopathy medicines that are available in the open market are meant for ‘cold fever’. But homeopathic doctors claim their medicines are quite effective in controlling swine flu. “We are giving factional doze which is quite effective in preventing ‘swine flu’. This is a disease of acute coldness”, eminent homeopath SK Dehury said. However he admits that selling of homeopathy medicine has increased because there is scarcity in allopathic medicine.

Meanwhile eminent citizens and political party leaders have urged the district administration to take adequate step to make availability of the vaccines and masks in the open markets.