Srinagar, Sep 29 (KNS): A CME was conducted on "Influenza in Kashmir: Facts and Fiction" in the weekly Saturday Grand Rounds of SKIMS where Dr Parvaiz Koul, Head, Pulmonary and Internal Medicine, SKIMS delivered a lecture on the current scene of influenza in Kashmir. It was stressed that the current influenza season seems to have started with only sporadic patients visiting health care facilities. The various nuances of infection control in gatherings, schools and hospitals was discussed and stress was laid upon prevention of influenza by vaccination. Routine influenza vaccination was stressed for people at high risk for complications like those at extremes of age, those with underlying chronic respiratory, cardiac, metabolic, liver or neurological disorders and those with immunocompromised states.
Dr Omar Javed Shah, Director, SKIMS stressed that health care workers especially working in critical areas like emergency, intensive care units, pulmonary medicine, geriatric medicine and laboratory workers should get vaccinated so as to protect themselves, their families and the patients they care for. He informed the house that SKIMS had taken pre-emptive measures this year and free of cost vaccination was being provided to those working in high risk areas including doctors and nurses working in oncology and obstetrics wards. Enhanced measures for the season have been taken that included readiness of isolation ward, enough supplies of personal protection devices and antiviral agents, should the seasonal activity demand those, he said. 
Dr Shah promised logistic support to the influenza laboratory of SKIMS and complimented the team for their work that had gotten SKIMS on the international scene and outshined other established influenza centers of the country. (KNS)