|
|
Swine Flu Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 2 One of these three passengers landed in Hyderabad and was referred to a government health facility there. The other two were in an isolation ward at RML till this evening, with reports of one of the suspects — a 35-year-old-UK-based NRI — leaving the hospital by the evening despite advice from doctors to stay under observation for three days. He left on the pretext that he was staying with relatives, but government authorities said they had the mechanism to track him down (the government is already tracking 2,000 passengers from US, Mexico and Canada who entered India over the past 10 days). His samples, along with those of the other suspected case — a 25-year-old Ghaziabad resident, who flew back from Texas this Thursday, are being tested at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in the capital. NICD director Dr Shiv Lal said reports would be available in 24 hours. At RML, medical superintendent NK Chaturvedi informed the media that both the suspected cases had checked into the hospital yesterday night and were being monitored closely. About the 35-year-old NRI, who arrived in New Delhi on an overnight flight from London yesterday, Chaturvedi said, “He had classical symptoms of flu but is still in suspect category.” Of the four cases found negative at RML, two were from Punjab; among the remaining two one was a child, who, the doctors said, was not considered a patient. By far, India has no confirmed case of the infection; screening of travellers from the affected countries is being held at 18 international airports at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Srinagar and Trichy. Varanasi will begin surveillance tomorrow. So far, 33,936 passengers have been screened; 126 doctors and 71 paramedics deployed to man 51 counters at the above stated locations. Meanwhile, concerns over spread of virus mounted today after Hong Kong reported its first confirmed case in Asia — a 25-year-old Mexican tourist, who arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday via Shanghai on the Chinese Eastern Airlines. China reacted by suspending all flights to and from Mexico and sealing off Metropark hotel in Wanchai district where the tourist had checked in. All guests at the hotel were also quarantined. World battles flu
France, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong on Saturday became the four new countries to be affected by the influenza, A H1N1 virus, taking the total number of affected nations to 15. The total number of confirmed infections, as per WHO, now is 615 while death toll is 17. Meanwhile, the WHO says imposing travel restrictions would have very little effect on stopping the virus from spreading, but would be highly disruptive to the global community. Scientific research based on mathematical modelling indicates that restricting travel will be of limited or no benefit in stopping the spread of disease. Historical records of previous influenza pandemics, as well as experience with SARS, have validated this point. WHO says travellers can protect themselves and others by delaying travel in case of illness or seeking medical help in case of symptoms.
Vaccine by May
Dr Marie King, Director, WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research, has said the process whereby manufacturers can prepare a vaccine against H1N1 would be ready by mid or end May. Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, is currently testing the serum from people containing boosted seasonal influenza vaccine. “Between the time the virus is isolated and the vaccine is made available, it can take four to five months,” Dr King said in WHO’s first briefing yesterday on vaccine against the new flu.
Eating pork safe
Health experts have said the current novel flu virus is airborne and is not spreading from pigs. “It can in fact spread from humans to pigs,” said a doctor; adding that well cooked pork products could be consumed without fear.
Elders may resist
Expert virologists feel the elders might have the immunity to battle the novel flu virus — the immunity that they must have developed at the time of the 1957 Asian flu. Current trends indicate that the swine flu is affecting mostly the children and young adults.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
No organised piggeries:
The swine flu virus flourishes in clusters. Unlike in the US and other European nations where there are organised piggeries, India has no organised pig farms in clusters. It just has backyard piggery -- something health ministry recently described as a “blessing”.
Ample Tamiflu:
India has four manufacturers of Oseltamivir, the generic version of Swiss drugmaker Roche's Tamiflu used to treat the virus. The government on Friday banned retail sale of the drug to prevent the virus from developing resistance. Several foreign nations are said to have approached Indian manufacturers for supply of anti-viral drug.