Swine flu: experts,activists call for scientific methods

On Tuesday,IMA doctors had a special meeting with the BMC health officials on how to scientifically deal with the virus. “Swine flu spreads from one person to another through the air,why slaughter pigs. We need to increase our vigil on tourists coming from places like Mexico where the flu has its origins,” said Dr Anil Pachnekar,President of IMA,Mumbai. According to Dr Pachnekar,the need of the hour is to have stricter vigil and not panic. “Anti-virals like Tamiflu are available in the city. People coming from vulnerable areas should have this anti-viral for a period of 15 days. In any case,there have been no proper cases detected so far,” Dr Pachnekar added.

The opinion of medical experts is also echoed by animal activists in the city,who say that World Health Organisation (WHO) too opposes such an action of slaughtering pigs. “WHO has categorically stated that the virus H1N1 cannot be transmitted to humans from pigs so why slaughter them? There is another disease called swine fever which is also only transmitted from one pig to another. So people in the city need not fear catching the virus from pigs directly,” said Dr J C Khanna,secretary of The Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA).

Dr Khanna himself has adopted two stray pigs and states that the fear perhaps can be legitimate in cities where pigry (pig farming) is common. “In Maharashtra and Mumbai we don’t have any form of organized pig farming. This is only common in the north-eastern belt in India,” said Dr Khanna.

Fizza Shah,animal activist from In Defence of Animals,further lambasted the corporators for spreading such a fear. “Corporators don’t have the medical knowledge to say such things. Killing of pigs does not guarantee that the virus will not spread. People coming from places like Mexico should be quarantined,” said Shah.