Chennai/New Delhi, June 13
The number of Swine flu cases across the country climbed upto 17 today as the Union Health Ministry warned of a spurt in number of cases after monsoon.
“They say that the H1N1 group of viruses proliferate more when the weather is slightly cooler,” Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said.
“We are happy that this time it is not proliferating so much because the temperature is high. But after the monsoon there is a chance that it can come again,” he added.
Meanwhile, the latest case in the country was that of one-and-a-half-year old boy who tested positive a day after his six-year-old sister tested the same for Swine flu.
The siblings had reached India along with their parents from New York on June 10.
Since they are too young to be quarantined, the sister-brother duo are being accompanied in hospital by their grandfather, who was put on anti-viral drugs and has tested negative for H1N1 virus.
The family members are also being tested and their samples have been sent to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) for tests.
A 24-year-old student, who came to Hyderabad from Austin (US) via Dubai-Mumbai, was admitted to hospital for showing Swine flu like symptoms.
In Tamil Nadu, a family of five, including a six- month-old infant, was quarantined at the airport with suspected symptoms after they arrived from the US. Muralitharan (44), wife Sarika (35) and their three daughters (aged five, three and the baby) were found to be suffering from cough, cold and fever after they were examined by a special medical team stationed at the airport. The doctors quarantined them immediately and sent them to the Communicable Diseases Hospital in the city for further medical attention.
The blood samples of the quarantined persons have been sent for H1N1 virus tests, Health Department officials said. The Coimbatore-based Muralitharan and his family had arrived in Chennai by a Lufthansa flight around 2.30 am.
Meanwhile, in the textile city of Coimbatore, two of the 11 suspected persons admitted with suspicions for Swine flu, tested positive. The rest of the patients had been discharged from the hospital, Dr Kumaran, Dean of the Coimbatore Medical College, where they were admitted said.
He also said both patients were being administered Tamiflu drugs and were showing improvement. They would be discharged once the virus level became totally negative, he added. As a protective
measure, important hospitals in the state are now equipped with precautionary kits.
Meanwhile, five suspected, suspected to have symptoms of H1N1 virus, were quarantined at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases here, Karnataka Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr Usha Vasunkar said today.
They include a 29-year-old woman and her three-year-old baby who were quarantined after they arrived at the Bangalore airport last night from the US, Usha told PTI.
Three others — a woman and a couple — voluntarily agreed to be in quarantine after they displayed swine flu like symptoms. The three had come from Singapore.
While the woman had arrived on June 7, the couple had arrived on June 9, Usha said.
The samples of the five have been sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology in Pune and results were awaited. “We are expecting the results tomorrow,” she said.
