New Delhi, June 15: With four confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza reported in the country on Sunday, the number of people hit by the pandemic
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bangalore Support staff stand outside the swine flu ward at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bangalore. rose to 23. Of the four, three were reported in Hyderabad and one, of a schoolboy from Punjab, in Delhi.
With three more H1N1 flu suspects testing positive in Hyderabad, the number of cases reported from the city went up to 12. Among the three fresh cases, two are children, both sisters. Also, five new suspected swine flu cases have been reported at the quarantine facility. An eight-year-old and her four-year-old sister, who had landed in Hyderabad from New Jersey by Indian Airlines Flight IA-140 on June 12, tested positive on Sunday evening. The two sisters were admitted to the Government General and Chest Hospital, Erragadda, with flu symptoms. The third confirmed case is that of the grandmother of the 20-month-old toddler who tested positive on Sunday. The 42-year-old woman was quarantined along with the child the same day. She travelled with the kid by AI flight from New Jersey to Hyderabad which reached the city on June 10.
A 17-year-old boy from Jalandhar, who travelled from Orlando transiting New York by a Qatar Airline flight, tested positive for H1N1 influenza at Delhi airport. The student, who had gone to Nasa along with 30 other students from Jalandhar, is at the Airport Health Organisation Hospital and has been put on Tamiflu. “The boy showed symptoms of flu and we admitted him in our facility. His friends, who travelled with him in the flight, were also screened. His family has come to Delhi,” said a health official. Alerted by the case, the health department in Punjab has contacted school authorities. According to officials, eight students have shown flu-like symptoms and have been isolated. Their blood samples have been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
Meanwhile, there was an inter-ministerial meeting at Nirman Bhawan to review the situation and preparedness to handle H1N1 influenza. Members of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) were also present and the meeting was chaired by principal health secretary Naresh Dayal. Cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar, who heads the National Crisis Management, was briefed about the situation and the country’s preparedness to handle H1N1 influenza. “We are holding daily meetings to review the situation and preparedness. There is no need to panic. We are also in touch with state governments,” said a NDMA official.
The NICD received 10 samples of suspected cases from across the country, including two from Delhi. The NICD has started sequencing and studying strain isolated from all the positive patients. WHO has so far reported 29,699 confirmed cases from 74 countries.
Meanwhile, health officials in Hyderabad are set to screen passengers of the June 12 flight, IA-140, who sat three rows before and three rows behind the two girls and their mother.
Worryingly, there is no ebb in the number of swine flu suspects flocking to Andhra capital. Four suspects cases got admitted to the hospital on Sunday. Incidentally, the number of child suspects, too, increased with a six-year-old girl from Minneapolis and nine-year-old boy from New Jersey being among the five suspects.
The six-year-old girl had arrived in the city to visit her relatives in Karimnagar on June 12. She developed symptoms on June 13 and got admitted to the quarantine hospital on Sunday. The nine-year-old boy arrived to meet his relatives on Sunday by the British Airlines flight. Since he had symptoms of the flu, including cough and cold, he was shifted to the Chest hospital in the wee hours of Sunday.
“Children and old people are more likely to catch the viral infection and hence there is an increase in the number of cases from this age group. Children will have to stay in the hospital for 14 days rather than a normal of eight days,” H1N1 Influenza Nodal Centre, coordinator, K Subhakar told TOI.
Another suspect, a 43-year-old woman from Kuwait, who had come to the city by Kuwait Airlines flight on Sunday morning, was shifted to the quarantine hospital as she showed symptoms of the flu at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad. The woman, a native of West Godavari district, has been living in Kuwait for past many years.
Meanwhile, the officials of the nodal centre said that the virology testing facility at Institute of Preventive Medicine in the city will be ready soon. “The equipment required for testing are there at the centre. All arrangements have been made to get the IPM centre for testing ready. Once the central government gives orders the centre will start functioning,” Subhakar said.
—Agencies–