KATHMANDU: Essential equipment for hospital to combat severe cases of Pandemic Influenza (H1N1) this winter is soon to arrive, thanks to Avian Influenza Control Project (AIPC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) .

Jeetendra Man Shrestha, deputy coordinator of AIPC said that WHO would provide assistance of $ 300,000 to the government of Nepal for fighting against the global pandemic. Shrestha told The Himalayan Times that AIPC itself would also purchase seven such sets of hospital equipment.

WHO has come up with the aid amidst predictions of surge in H1N1 cases

during winter while the regional meeting had demanded for active case management with antiviral and other supportive

measures.

WHO, in the regional meeting, had also claimed that the pandemic was spreading rapidly and hence necessitated rapid response of public health measures combined with a sound case management strategy. Shrestha further, said that an awareness campaign in order to prevent community outbreak of H1N1 was in the pipeline. Added to that, “monitoring the suspected entry places of the Virus and non-paramedical intervention are the key,” he said. The first H1 N1 case in Nepal was confirmed on 29th June 2009, the toll, however, stands at 36 now, 29 among them being Nepali migrant workers.

In the meantime, Ministry of Health and Population(MoHP) stated that there were 36,000 anti-viral courses, 200 each already dispatched for referral and Zonal hospitals.

While the MoHp holds stock of 35,000 courses of antibiotics,100,000 disposal masks, 20,000 surgical gloves and three thousand N95 respirator mask and other medical supplies to deal with the pandemic. MoHP, meanwhile, has appealed the people to keep a distance of a meter from the suspected H1N1 case, wash hand carefully and use handkerchief while coughing and sniffing.