Is India prepared to fight swine flu?

The WHO has declared a global pandemic but there are worries that not everyone will be able to access the drugs and vaccine needed to fight the virus.

Organisations like the Medicine Sans Frontier have expressed concern at the way rich countries are stockpiling drugs. But Indian firms like Cipla have shown that there is a way out to fight this artificial shortage.

A week before the H1N1 swine flu pandemic broke out, Cipla won a patent war against Gilead, the pharma company that owns the rights over oseltamivir or Tamiflu. Today, Cipla and three other companies are making generic versions of the drug.

Though India is still at level five of the pandemic, the government is prepared. Ten million doses of oseltamivir has been stocked and with the virus isolated, vaccines are also in the pipeline.

Two firms, panacea and bharat biotech, have been shortlisted to make cell based vaccines, while serum institute will make egg-based vaccines.

But the biggest challenge is tracking cases. Most of the cases have come forward themselves so far. Unless surveillance is improved, cases will not be caught on time.

"We need hospital based surveillance, all government and private hospitals must keep track of flu patients and report them," said Dr Shaheed Jameel, Virologist, ICGEB.

Right now, the number of infected may be low but as Australia has shown, the trend can change overnight and the only way to tackle it is not to be caught off guard.