The influenza A virus H1N1 continues to spread rapidly in India with over 32000 cases reported and 1900 deaths . As the highly infectious disease started spreading the first action taken by healthcare machinery was to create Isolation wards in public hospitals. But are these “Isolation wards” really satisfying their purpose of isolating patients to provide them specialised care and thereby protecting non infected people and healthcare workers? The Indian public healthcare system has always been ill prepared when it comes to containment of infectious diseases in hospitals.
This is despite of our vast experience with TB. We are on the verge of becoming the TB capital of the world. In this scenario properly designed isolation facilities have become the need of the hour if we have to combat such diseases. A quick visit to any isolation ward of a…
