Assuring people that the government is determined to control the spread of swine flu in the country, the government on Friday said within a couple of days it will review and decide on the open sale of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the drug used for treatment of the disease.

Facing a volley of questions in the Rajya Sabha on the disease which is spreading panic, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government has kept a stock of 1 crore Tamiflu doses ready and if there was a need for open sale of the medicine, it will be done as and when necessary.

"So far, we have not allowed Tamilflu to be sold in the retail market. In the next two-three days, we are going to review again. Should the need warrants, it has to be allowed for public consumption," Azad said.

Seeking to allay fears of the common man about the disease, Azad said, "There are guidelines and constant review of the situation is being done."

"We have managed to limit such cases (swine flu) to a few individuals, considering the size of our population and country," Azad said during Question Hour.

He said though one swine flu test costs Rs 10,000, it was being done free of cost in 19 laboratories across the country.

"We managed to identify positive cases (from around 7,000 suspects) and put them on Tamiflu. This way, we managed to limit the number of positive cases, otherwise this figure would have multiplied to seven million. I would like to give credit to our doctors," Azad said.

The health minister said the government has already trained doctors at the state level and has instructed states to train doctors at the district level also for tackling the virus.

People must trust the medicine which has worldwide recognition and recognised by India too, he said.

Describing the death of 14-year-old Pune girl Rida Sheikh due to the disease as "unfortunate", Azad said timely medication could have saved her.

"The death of the girl was unfortunate, however, there was a mistake from both sides. Timely medication could have saved her," he said.

The girl went to three private practitioners and the diagnosis was not done on time, he said adding that no deaths had been reported before this case.

Azad said out of around 600 identified cases of swine flu in the country, 470 have been discharged after medication.

Meanwhile, with a surge in the number of swine flu cases, the Centre on Friday issued fresh guidelines to states asking them to increase the designated hospitals for treatment besides allowing private hospitals to treat patients and setting up helplines to provide information.

In a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories, Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said it is necessary to identify more hospitals for examination and collection of samples of suspected cases of swine flu.

Image: A nurse carries masks and medicine outside the influenza A (H1N1) ward in Mumbai [Images]
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters