New Delhi: In view of the increasing number of cases of respiratory diseases in children in some parts of China, now caution is being taken in India too. Under this, states will have to report all cases of severe respiratory diseases such as influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI).
This report will have to be made regarding these diseases among children and adolescents at the district level.A senior central government official, on condition of anonymity, said, “This is being done purely as a precautionary measure. No red flags or seriousness have been observed so far, but increased surveillance is important.
A surveillance system is already in place to track respiratory diseases due to COVID-19, which will be used for further surveillance. As stated earlier, the risks to India remain low.”
The Health Ministry has advised all States and Union Territories to implement the ‘Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in the Context of COVID-19’ shared earlier this year, which provides for integrated surveillance of respiratory pathogens .
In a letter, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant asked states to ensure that trends in ILI and SARI, especially among children and adolescents, are closely monitored by the district and state surveillance units of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project.
He wrote that “Data of ILI and SARI are required to be uploaded on IDSP-IHIP portal exclusively from public health institutions including medical college hospitals.
“States also asked to send nose and throat swab samples of SARI patients, especially children and adolescents, to Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories located in the states for testing for respiratory pathogens.”
