NBMCH on high alert

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Dec. 19: A red alert has been sounded at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in view of the recent outbreak of Bird Flu in some parts of north Bengal particularly Malda. Announcing this today the medical superintendent of NBMCH, Dr Samir Ghosh Roy, said that the medical college authority was gearing up to meet possible health threats following the state health department's red alert warning for the region.
“Though the flu has not yet assumed alarming proportions, we are not leaving anything to chance. Like last year the NBMCH administration is taking all kinds of precautionary and emergency measures to tackle the challenge at the local levels,” Dr Ghosh Roy said.
Further elaborating the steps being taken, the NBMCH superintendent said that a ventilator was being readied to meet any emergency. “Besides, the ID ward is being transformed temporarily into an isolation ward to accommodate the flu afflicted patients,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president of NBMCH Junior Doctors’ Council, Dr Bhaskar Roy, said that the medical college administration was not serious about making adequate arrangements to prevent accidental exposure as far as contagious diseases like the avian flu were concerned.
“We do not know whether the drug required to prevent the possible contamination by way of accidental exposure is in the hospital stock or not. Any exposure through the instruments we use while treating such ailments may prove fatal for the physicians,” he said.
“Besides, the gloves we use are often found to be either too large or too small in size. This may cause accidental transportation of the germs. We are much worried about our own safety, though we would not be found wanting in fighting the dreaded disease with all sincerity expected of us,” Dr Roy said.

Flu panic
Bird Flu panic gripped the Battoala area of Baneswar after locals spotted six dead crows this morning. Informed, the district animal resource development personnel went to the spot and sent samples from the dead crows for laboratory tests.