Goa will invoke the Epidemic control Act of 1897

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Goa to invoke epidemic act to tackle swine flu

Calcutta News.Net Wednesday 5th August, 2009 (IANS)

Goa will invoke the Epidemic control Act (ECA), 1897, to curb the spread of

influenza A (H1N1) once the state's busy tourism season gets underway in

October, Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane said Wednesday.

Rane's announcement comes barely a day after the Maharashtra government invoked

the act in Pune and Satara districtS after a 14-year-old Pune schoolgirl died of

swine flu.

'Maharashtra has invoked the act because there are thousands of international

guests arriving at its (Mumbai) airport. We don't feel it is required for Goa at

this moment. But once the tourist season starts we will put this act into

effect,' Rane told reporters here.

The epidemic act gives health authorities the power to forcibly admit and treat

any swine flu patient at a government-run hospital.

'If this (swine flu) is not controlled worldwide, Goa will have to enforce the

act once the tourist season starts,' Rane said, adding that Goa receives

tourists from all over the world, including from countries particularly affected

by swine flu.

After the terror strikes in Mumbai last year eclipsed Goa's tourist season, the

swine flu pandemic could possibly deplete the arrivals in 2009-10. Goa receives

nearly two million tourists in an average year, out of which about 400,000 are

foreigners.

There are presently seven swine flu patients under quarantine in Goa.

Recently, the state nodal officer for swine flu Rajendra Tamba was transferred

to a rural dispensary after he questioned the efficiency and the will of the

state health department when it came to handling the swine flu outbreak.

http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/527429