New Delhi, July 16: In the biggest single case of a possible swine flu attack in the country, all classmates of a 14-year-old girl at a top Delhi school have been asked to stay home after she tested positive for the H1N1 virus.
Deepti (name changed to protect her identity), a class IX student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (SPV), Lodi Estate, reportedly picked up the strain while on a family vacation to Malaysia and Singapore. She returned to Delhi on July 8.
That she may have been carrying the virus was missed on the flight home even though a member of her group had displayed the symptoms. This was also the case at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The school and civic authorities learnt of their case when the girl’s family reported the matter to them.
There is no saying if the virus has spread further through contact. Deepti had attended school for two days before she was detected as being infected by the H1N1 virus. Nineteen people belonging to the girl’s family and three other families had travelled abroad together.
What makes this the biggest single case of the virus attack is that 16 of them, including children, have tested positive or displayed swine flu- like symptoms. They are admitted to the isolation ward of Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital.
There is now a full-fledged swine flu scare at SPV. Apart from her classmates, all those who accompanied Deepti on the schoolbus on the two days that she came to school – including teachers – have been asked to go on “precautionary leave”. School sources said their number adds up to over 90. The DTC bus being used for ferrying the students has been taken off service “till further notice”. At the school on Wednesday, the discussion among students centred on swine flu and Deepti’s case. One of the students, who did not wish to be identified said, “I have come to the school only after convincing my parents that it is safe. They asked me if it was necessary and could I not skip classes for a couple of days before things settled down.” “As a father I am obviously concerned that my children could have been exposed to a dangerous virus,” said Pramod Sharma, a worried parent. “As a precautionary measure the school should have shut down for a few days,” said Arun Aggarwal, another parent.
The school has decided that the classmates of the class IX student should also be asked to stay at home. The school principal Anuradha Joshi also sent a “precautionary note” to parents on Tuesday, telling them of Deepti’s case – though without naming her.
SPV was cautious in the note. It only said the class IX girl, her family and friends had displayed swine flu-like symptoms and were in “precautionary quarantine”. It also advised parents not to send their children to school if they developed these symptoms.
Despite the scare among parents and students, the school stayed open.
Dr Anjan Prakash, additional nodal officer handling swine flu on behalf of the Delhi government, confirmed the developments relating to Deepti, her family and friends.
“Our doctors and the officers from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) held a meeting with the school principal. All students of the section (from the affected student’s class) have been asked not to come to school. Our officials will get in touch with each student of her class. Parents will be advised to keep their children in home quarantine and observe them for swine flu-like symptoms,” he said.
The girl’s father described the shoddy swine flu- checking procedure on the flight home and at the Indira Gandhi International Airport upon their return. “We came by Malaysia Airlines flight MH0190, which landed in New Delhi at 9.15 pm on July 8. On the flight, a girl from one of our three accompanying families had vomited, with blood coming out of the nose.
This wasn’t reported to the medical authorities on the ground. Even at the airport, there was no checking,” he said. This now raises fears that the girl may have infected her co- passengers.
At the airport, he said the health officers sitting in front of thermal monitors did not even look at them, and merely asked them to fill up the health declaration form if they felt fine.
The next day, on July 9, a member from a friend’s family tested positive for the H1N1 virus. Those from his own family, including Deepti, too developed symptoms of the virus and were admitted to RML Hospital on July 13. “When we got the positive test results (of the virus), we informed SPV on Tuesday.” Besides Deepti and her father, her elder sister and mother are now in the hospital’s isolation ward. The affected girl’s grandmother was the only one at the family home in north Delhi not to report swine flu-like symptoms. “They have all been admitted to hospital and are recovering well. They will be fine soon,” she said.
Meanwhile, SPV has decided to conduct an “internal audit” to identify all students who went abroad or had relatives coming to their homes from other countries during the summer vacations.
Nilesh Dedania, SPV’s manager, said: “We reacted as fast as we could after learning of Deepti’s case. We held a meeting on Tuesday evening and then subsequently dispatched a letter to the NDMC authorities for counseling on the response to the situation.” Bala Ram, one of NDMC’s health educators for swine flu cases said this was urgently required because there was “a complete lack of awareness” about the flu.
“Ideally, the entire school, the staff and the teachers should have a counselling session. One never knows who may have come in touch with the affected student. This especially includes the teachers who came in touch with the girl.” The central district’s medical team has been given the task of ensuring that Deepti’s classmates and those travelling with her on her schoolbus are home quarantined.
–Agencies