With H1N1 and dengue are raising its ugly head in Karnataka, the state government has woken to the harsh reality and is aggressively pursuing a two-pronged strategy to tackle the infectious diseases on a war footing. In this regard, the state directorate of health and family welfare which constituted a Integrated Disease Surveillance committee has started to issue guidelines to hospitals to notify all admissions and deaths caused out of dengue.

In the case of H1N1, the government has launched a massive awareness drive. It has taken several measures to contain the disease including holding awareness drives and training programme at Anganwadis.

With over 216 lives claimed by H1N1 since its outbreak in 2009, Karnataka has managed to contain the numbers, according to a communiqué from the department.

Last year the virus resulted in 135 cases but this year till date the number was 81. Of the 8,504 cases which reported of symptoms, 1,799 people were tested positive for H1N1. Around 1,664 cases underwent treatment at government hospitals.

This year, until August 2010, of the 5,384 cases who were tested for the condition, 1,201 patients were tested positive and 81 deaths.

According to the Karnataka health minister Sriramalu, in comparison to the other states in the country, the state has done better in controlling the disease and treating people. In Maharashtra, in May 2009, there were 612 deaths reported and in Gujarat it was 323 fatal cases.

Currently, there are three labs which carry out tests to detect H1N1. These are the Bangalore based National Institute of mental Heath (NIMHANS) and the Manipal Hospital besides Mangalore-based Kasturba Medical College. The state's s efforts to monitor the disease is carrying out extensively, he added.

In the case of dengue, the state guidelines to hospitals are prescribed in format based on the World Health Organization (WHO) format. There is an expert committee headed by Dr. Usha Wasunkar, director, directorate of the health and family welfare.

In order to reconfirm the positive cases at private labs, the government has now authorized state designated blood test units at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health and National Centre for communicable Diseases. In addition, the state has also identified the National Institute of Virology, Pune to handle the samples from government hospitals like NIMHANS, Victoria and Public Health Institute for dengue. In addition, this tests can also be done at existing 14 labs at Kolar, Mysore, Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, Belgaum, Shimoga, Bellary, Hubli, Chitradurga, Udupi, Hassan, Tumkur, Bijapur and Raichur.