Mumbai, January 28
Following the rising number of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) cases in Pune, Maharashtra Health Minister Prakashrao Abitkar said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has instructed officials to form a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to control the rise in number of cases.
Prakashrao Abitkar said, " A discussion was held in the cabinet regarding the GBS outbreak in Pune. The CM has asked us to form an SOP to control the rise in cases. Health Minister, Health Secretary, Municipality officers, DM and other senior officers will be present as part of the task force. The source of this outbreak is Nanded village in Pune district, where contaminated water from a well was consumed leading to the cases in the district. In Pune out of 118 patients, 80 patients are from Nanded area. GBS is not a new disease, there have been many prior cases in Maharashtra as well as the country."
He further said that the Pune Municipal Corporation and Health Department team have conducted an inspection.
"The water in the well is contaminated. It comes from Khadakwasla. Now the number of patients is 111. I am confident that the number won't rise. Teams from Delhi will also take a visit. When resistance power in any patient decreases then the number rises. This is not transmittable disease like Covid," he added.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that the state health department is making every effort to control the situation.
BMC said, "The government has taken a review of GBS. In case of any such case in future, 50 ICU beds with hot sheets have been arranged at the main hospital of the Vaikyalaya in Mumbai city, and 100 ICU beds with hot sheets are being arranged at the Sehnsa Hospital. All the medicines available for GBS treatment are available in Mumbai. Till date, no new case of GBS has been found in Mumbai and there has been no increase in the number of cases."
BMC said that all government and private healthcare institutions in Mumbai have been instructed to report any new GBS cases to the Epidemic Cell of the Public Health Department.
However, cases of this disease are generally found in Mumbai city in small numbers throughout the year, BMC said.
Earlier CM Devendra Fadnavis reviewed the disease of GBS in the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday. A presentation was made on the disease on behalf of the Public Health Department in the meeting.
- ANI