Sri Lankas Ministry of Health issuing an alert yesterday (December 21) advised the public that expecting mothers, health officers, airport and port staff, armed forces and police personnel and patients with long term illnesses should vaccinate themselves with the AH1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine as a precautionary measure to stop another outbreak of the deadly flu in the country.
In a statement issued the Health Ministry advised that the public should take precautionary measures such as washing hands regularly, discarding items such as tissues used for personal hygiene, staying away from large public gathering and places if suffering from fever and other flue symptoms.
Nearly 300 AH1N1 cases were reported this year and 18 deaths had occurred due the AH1N1 influenza.
The public should seek immediate medical assistance if suffering from prolonged fever, headaches, body pains, vomiting, breathing difficulty, and sever cough and flue like symptoms.
"The previous 400,000 vaccine stocks for the AH1N1 virus which was requested from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been distributed to island wide hospitals. Senior Epidemiologist of the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Sudath Peiris said.
According to Dr. Peiris, the government has requested for another one million vaccines from the WHO, as a precautionary measure.The vaccines that have already been distributed among hospitals have been provided free of charge. Dr. Peiris said the steps were taken as precautionary measure because there was a high likelihood of the virus spreading to Sri Lanka from neighboring India.
“The situation is completely under control and the number of cases has dropped drastically. More than 90% of the hospitalized patients have now returned home”, assured the Head of the Epidemiology Unit, Dr. Paba Palihawadena