In
a bid to step up its battle against swine flu, the state government ordered the
construction of three new testing laboratories but neither of the labs meet
international safety precautions. As per WHO, laboratories that culture
influenza A (H1N1) viruses should have biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) -but none of
the testing laboratories in the state register more than level 2 in biosafety.
Moreover, two of these laboratories do not have the equipment that helps
diagnose the virus strain.
This
year, 122 people have succumbed to swine flu while 2,000 are currently being
monitored. Taking into the consideration the increasing number of swine flu
cases and with Kutch and Jamnagar recording 25 per cent of the total number of
swine flu cases, the state health department, in February, announced
construction of three laboratories in Kutch, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. Each lab
was to be built at the cost of Rs 25 lakh each.However, none of the labs
measure up to biosafety level 3 (BSL-3).
