CB Bureau‘The H1N1 vaccine should be compulsory for healthcare workers, especially those who work in the isolation wards or
with H1N1 patients. The vaccine should also be made mandatory for pregnant
women, more so for those in their second or third trimesters,’ said Dr Om
Srivastav, head of infectious diseases, BMC.
The doctor was one of the
participants at a conference held at a Mumbai hospital, on August 1, where doctors
from various fields came together to review the waves of H1N1 pandemic.
Dr Khusrav Bajan, consultant physician and
intensivist at Hinduja Hospital, was of the opinion that not everybody needed to
be vaccinated. ‘A person who has completely recovered from the virus need not
worry about taking the vaccine. Their immune system would have developed the antibodies
to fight the virus,’ he said.
Although the technology for swab tests has advanced
since last year, the panel of doctors agreed that in order to be prepared to
fight the disease, the test needs to be up-to-date.