India-Swine Flu-Running out of Ventilators

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Is Delhi ready for second wave of H1N1?

              NDTV Correspondent, Sunday December 20, 2009, New Delhi

            http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/is_delhi_ready_for_second_wave_of_h1n1.php

			Delhi
is now the hub of the swine flu outbreak, and one of the biggest
problems in dealing with patients who had a severe case of the flu, is
a basic lack of infrastructure in hospitals and nursing homes.

And
this came as shock for the family of 24-year-old Umesh, who tested
positive for H1N1, when they had to visit four hospitals within a span
of four hours, because none of the hospitals had ventilators.

Umesh developed fever on December 8. A day later, he was admitted to a private hospital with breathing problems and high fever. Despite his symptoms, he was tested for H1N1 four days later.

On the sixth day, even when he tested positive, he was not put on Tamiflu.
Instead, he was released by the hospital at midnight because he needed
a ventilator to survive. The next four hours were a nightmare for the
family. Four hospitals, none of them with ventilators.

"In
Safdurjung hospital, we were told that there is this pregnant lady who
just died. Doctors said she died because we could not provide
ventilator on time. That night we saw the horrible system that was in
place for what is supposed to be a national health crisis," said Pankaj Pathak, one of the relatives.

So
far, 54 patients have died of swine flu in Delhi, and over 750 across
the country. The government says most of them died because they
reported late.

Clearly, that's just part of the story. Private
sector hospitals are still unable to detect the disease. Worse, all
designated hospitals meant to treat pandemic patients are still falling
short of life support systems needed to handle critical patients.

Delhi has roughly 200 confirmed swine flu patients every day, but there are only 220 beds and just 88 ventilators.

In
the second wave, larger number of patients are expected to test the
infrastructure, especially because Delhi also caters to a huge influx
of patients from the national capital region as well as states like UP
and Haryana.