Hyderabad, June 09: Ten teams from the district medical and health department visited the residences of 54 passengers, who were seated three rows ahead and three rows behind the 28-year-old passenger who tested positive for H1N1, on the British Airways-277 flight for verification and anti-viral treatment in the city on Monday, in order to prevent the spread of the infection.
As of now, four passengers of BA-277 flight tested positive for the virus of the seven confirmed cases reported from the city. The reports of one more suspected case of a 32-year-old, also from BA-277 along with that of a 27-year-old woman who arrived on June 3 by an Air India flight from St Louis, US, are awaited. The samples were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for confirmatory tests.
Though the medical teams identified 20 children in the social contacts of the passengers who tested positive and other suspected cases, due to paucity of drug, the authorities had to airlift bottles of the Tamiflu Suspension syrup from Delhi on Monday night for distribution.
At a press conference on Monday, H1N1 Nodal Centre coordinator Dr K Subhakar said, “People should come forward if they develop swine flu symptoms later. If private hospitals get such cases, they should immediately alert the district health authorities.”
Till now, over 95,000 passengers flying in from affected areas were screened at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The screening process has been intensified with additional doctors and staff deployed at the airport. The airport staff and crew members were also educated about the flu, he said.
He further said that the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) director would visit Hyderabad on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.
A rapid response team from NICD team came to the city on Sunday to investigate and contain the spread of the infection in the wake of a human-to-human transmission of the infection in the city. The brother of 28-year-old techie from Philadelphia tested positive for H1N1.
District Medical and Health Officer (DM&HO) Dr Ch Jayakumari said all passengers of the BA 277 flight have been traced and contacted. She said that on Sunday and Monday, 550 anti-viral tablets were distributed to the immediate family members as well as all those whom the patients had contact with.
In the meanwhile, Dr Subhakar said that the quarantine period of the 20-year-old medical student who tested positive would end on Tuesday. “After the reports of his secretions come, we will discharge him. The rest (six) are stable and their status is being monitored. Every alternate day, their samples are being sent to NICD for tests,” he said.
–Agencies–