India confirms
seventh case of swine flu
New
Delhi: A four-and-a-half year old girl has been tested positive for influenza
A (H1N1), making it the seventh case of swine flu to be confirmed in India. According
to reports, the virus has been transmitted to the girl through her brother, who
was tested positive earlier this week. "The youth had returned to India from the
US via London. He got down at Hyderabad airport and went straight home. It is
now confirmed that he transmitted the virus to his brother and a young girl who
was travelling with him on the same flight," said Shiv Lal, head of the National
Institute of Communicable Diseases. Three of them are being monitored in hospitals
in Hyderabad. "A team of NICD officials is on its way to Hyderabad along with
a multi-disciplinary rapid response team," Lal said. The youth, a 20-year-old
man had reported at the Hyderabad hospital with complaints of cough, running nose
and fever. "His samples tested positive for Influenza A (H1N1). He has been put
on Oseltamivir, as are the others," the official said. As soon as his case was
reported, authorities had swung into action and tried to trace people who had
been in contact with him. "Among the passengers near him was a four-and-a-half-year-old
girl. She was sitting with her mother on the next row. When she was tested, she
was found positive," he added. "Samples of her mother was also sent for testing
and were found negative. But we are doing a repeat test," Lal said.
In
Coimbatore, two out of eleven swine flu cases reported on Wednesday tested positive.
"Out of the eleven suspected swine flu cases admitted in Coimbatore Medical College
only two have become positive. The rest of the patients have been discharged from
the hospital and they are at home and followed by public health authorities,"
said Doctor Kumaran, Dean of the Coimbatore Medical College. Kumaran added that
both patients are being administered Tamiflu drugs. "The two patients are already
on sixth day of Tamiflu treatment. And they are clinically, laboratory wise showing
improvement. Once the virus level becomes totally negative they will be also sent
home," said Kumaran. All patients with suspected swine flu like symptoms are being
quarantined at the Coimbatore Medical College (CMC), a government-run hospital.
As a protective measure, the government hospital has now equipped itself with
precautionary kits to meet any sort of emergency. The central government has sent
over 2000 tablets to the hospital.
The
virus, which spreads easily and causes mostly mild disease, has been diagnosed
in 17,564 people in 64 countries, killing 115, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO). Although H1N1 swine flu appears mild, it affects mostly older children
and young adults, and experts worry it could change into a more dangerous form.
The spread of H1N1 flu in Australia, Britain, Chile, Japan and Spain has nudged
the world closer to a pandemic, the WHO said. The new flu -- a mixture of swine,
bird and human viruses -- remains most prevalent in North America but has infected
nearly 19,000 people in 64 countries, according to the WHO's latest toll, which
tends to lag behind national figures but is considered more reliable.
-Jun
6, 2009
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