Even as cases of swine flu have surged dramatically over the past few months leading to over 600 reported deaths across the country, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has instructed all the state drug controllers to ensure that antiviral medicine, oseltamivir be made available to the needy patients taking also into account its rational usage for the sake of patient safety.

DCGI has directed all the state drug controllers to ensure that over 3000 existing retail outlets authorised to dispense the oseltamivir generic be made available to the needy patients. The generic medicine oseltamivir, available for swine flu currently manufactured and marketed by a few companies, is a Schedule X drug.

Says Dr G N Singh, DCGI, "State drug controllers have been asked to issue Schedule X restrictive licences if required and vaccination to be taken up as a preventive measure to immune healthcare workers. Vaccination is not required by the general public. It has to be borne in mind that panic -stricken patients refrain from taking medicines in an irrational way. We are currently recommending Tamiflu for patients who get infected with H1N1 virus."

It was reported that many retailers, licenced to sell the drug and vaccine, had run out of stock as demand surged significantly in the past few weeks with increasing number of people testing positive for H1N1 influenza, creating panic among patients and their kin. Although the cause for the sudden surge is yet to be ascertained, doctors suspect a change in the strain behaviour which generally happens in three to four years. ICMR, though, has ruled out strain mutation.

In Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi alone, medicines are difficult to access due to limited number of licenced stockists and chemists in retail drug stores, according to sources. Chemists in Mumbai and Bengaluru rue only few chemists have the licenses to dispense the Schedule X oseltamivir generic medicine. Only over 50 to 100 licensed stockists are managing the sale and stock of medicines in these places.

According to the Maharashtra health department officials, over 10 lakh oseltamivir medicines are currently made available. The virus has already killed 58 people in the state and infected 442.

Its reported shortage in retail drug stores in major parts of the country as also issues related to its irrational usage have been a major cause of concern for the health ministry. The Union health ministry has recently placed an order for enhancing stock of diagnostic kits to be supplied to the lab network under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) being used for testing H1N1 influenza. To enhance the level of preparedness, additional 60,000 oseltamivir medicines and 10,000 N-95 masks are being procured.

National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has also floated a tender for additional 10,000 diagnostic kits. In case of need, labs under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have been identified across the country to provide additional testing facilities.

The government data shows swine flu deaths have more than doubled compared to the previous year taking the toll to 624. A total of 9,311 people got infected,. In 2014, 218 swine flu deaths were reported from a total of 937 cases, pan-India. Gujarat and Rajasthan have reported the maximum number of deaths at 155 and 183 respectively. Madhya Pradesh has reported 81 deaths due to the H1N1 virus followed by Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Delhi.