Swine flu epidemic: Forget Tamiflu, govt is sending ayurvedic meds to states

New Delhi: A day after death toll due to swine flu crossed 700, Union Minister of State for Health Shripad Naik today said the Centre is sending special ayurvedic medicinal syrups to all states as part of its efforts to combat the influenza. Naik, in charge of the newly-created AYUSH Ministry, claimed that the “situation is under control” saying that medicines are being distributed apart from setting up isolation wards in government hospitals. “AYUSH can definitely help as ayurveda has special medicinal syrups in this regard. Already 5,000-6,000 people have received the medicine at Rajasthan. The National Institute of Ayurveda at Rajasthan has already sent batches of that medicine to different states and we have also requested them to send the same to other states,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_2103415” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image used for representational purposes only. AFP.[/caption] The Minister was speaking on the sidelines of a day-long State and UT Ministers’ conference on AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), first such event after it was carved out of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He flagged concern on the states not sending “Utilisation Certificates” (UC) on spent funds saying such “non-compliance” was leading to allocation of funds being stopped. “The states are supposed to send UCs but if they don’t, the allocation stops which many of them are not doing,” he said. Settlement of pending UCs was one of the issues on the agenda of the Conference apart from deliberations on the National Ayush Mission among others. PTI