Hyderabad, July 14: Doctors at the Government Chest Hospital sat bolt upright on Monday when news trickled in that eight persons had tested positive for swine flu. Alarmed over the rapid spread of the deadly infection, they have put in place an action plan to combat the virus. Of the eight, seven contracted it in the city from a friend who had travelled abroad. The eighth case is an unrelated one.
The total number of cases in the State has now gone up to 31.
Twenty of them, however, have already been discharged. The latest ‘cluster’ case is going to severely test the government’s response and raise fears of the spread of swine flu in the city.
“The cluster of seven” contracted swine flu from a 29-yearold software professional who landed in the city from Houston on July 5. He developed symptoms on July 7 and was admitted to the Chest Hospital in Erragadda two days later. The two-day delay proved deadly for his friends. Of the seven, three are his colleagues in his Madhapur- based firm with 35 employees.
Among the rest, two are techies working in separate firms with a staff strength of 150 and 180 each, one a job aspirant and the other a student.
While the source (the techie) was already in isolation at the Chest Hospital, two of his friends were isolated on Sunday and four on July 11. Their test results arrived on Sunday.
The eighth case is that of a twoand- a-half-year-old child who had come from Dubai with his family. They arrived on July 12 and came straight to the Chest Hospital from the airport. The samples of the rest of the family have been sent for testing.
Dr Subhakar, coordinator of the Swine Flu Nodal Centre, said medication was being given to all the employees in the three firms from where the cases had come. Asked about protection to their families, he replied, ‘‘There is no end to this, this can continue in a chain sequence.’’
–Agencies