India -- Swine Flu tests privatized health care

While the swine flu pandemic has not hit India too hard, it has sorely tested the country's ailing health delivery system and its plans to remedy the situation through 'private-public partnerships.' Much of the drama is playing out in the western Indian city of Pune where the death of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, on Aug. 3, following misdiagnosis at a private hospital where she was being treated, has led to charges in the media that the government was not doing enough contain the spread of the A(H1N1) virus. What happened in Pune tended to be replicated across several of India's cities - the sense of panic and confusion as well as shortages of antivirals like 'Tamiflu,' spread by terse reportage on India's numerous television channels. It was not long before the government began to be accused of creating artificial shortages of antivirals by restricting the sales of Tamiflu and playing into the hands of the manufacturers of generic drugs and testing kits.