Pune returnees asked to bring ‘clean’ certificates
The swine flu scare in major cities in India may have subsided to a large extent but the fear and panic about the disease, which is still
a mystery, continues in the villages. Ignorant and uninformed villagers are still very apprehensive about it.
In fact, sarpanchs in a village in Amravati district and another in Bhandara district did not allow some villagers returning from swine flu-affected cities like Pune to enter the village. They were told to bring ‘swine flu free’ certificates from the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Nagpur to allow them entry into the village. “About 15 students from a village in Bhandara district had been to Pune as a part of the Maharashtra darshan tour.
But the village sarpanch asked them to bring a ‘clean’ certificate from the GMCH. These students attended the GMCH OPD and we had to give them a clean chit letter so that they could be allowed to enter their own village,” said a senior infectious disease resident attending the swine flu OPD patients regularly.