Swine flu scare is being artificially triggered to make money

Now IMA questions ‘Merit’ of Swine Flu to kill

New Delhi, 15 January: Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called the bluff of market being created around almost ‘innocuous’ Swine Flu by cabal of health providers, diagnostic centers and pharmaceutical companies.

IMA, India’s modern doctors’ apex body, has questioned Swine flu’s ‘merit’ to kill in comparison to that of seasonal flu. According to Dr. K.K. Aggarwal, IMA’s new Secretary General, seasonal flu, which Indian population has been coping with without a shade panic from time immemorial every year, has a death rate at least 10 times that of swine flu. He minces no words saying that the scare about swine flu is being artificially created to make monetary kill. Swine flu kills one (1) in 10 lakh every year. On the other hand seasonal flu kills one (1) in a lakh. Despite being more fatal, seasonal flu never created panic.

IMA has even written a letter to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to reign in unnecessary panic. Dr. Aggarwal in his letter has insinuated that every time news of swine flu is flashed, it triggers panic and along with it the prices of flu drugs, investigation and consultation head skyward. In his letter, he has requested health minister to issue guidelines for doctors so that they observe restraint while speaking on swine flu. There seems to be apparent efforts to trigger scare.

The cost of test for HINI (virus that causes swine flu) ranges from 4 thousand to 10 thousand, so the interest of diagnostic centers in spreading scare is quite understandable. Then the cost of vaccine is Rs. 1000. The scare also creates market for mask and the medicine Tami flu.

With such radical approach of IMA, the incumbent leadership runs the risk of rubbing his own members the wrong way since such approach dents the ‘business’ of his community adversely. But an activist that Dr. K.K. Aggarwal has ever been, he has bit this bullet from the front.

In retrospect, when swine flu first made its appearance in 2009 in Mexico, scare had been hyped disproportionately all over the world including India as if swine flu would wipe out large chunk of population in one fell swoop. At that time too, it had been alleged that scientists of WHO had hyped swine flu’s killing ability disproportionately at the behest of multinational pharmaceutical companies which allegedly had plotted for a monetary kill over it. WHO later on had to retreat and confess that scare was hyped disproportionately.

This year 60 cases of swine flu have been reported in national capital in which fatalities so far is 4. Most of them who died had co-morbidities like a lady had uncontrolled diabetes.  Dr. Aggarwal says unless there is breathing difficulty, there is nothing to worry about.