M A I N   N E W S

Alert in K’taka as two test positive
Shubhadeep Choudhury/R Sedhuraman
Tribune News Service

3 fresh cases in AP Hyderabad, June 14 Three fresh cases of Swine flu were reported here today, taking the total number of cases in the city to five. Dr SV Prasad, Superintendent of Chest Hospital, said three suspected flu patients, including a four-year-old girl, her eight-year-old sister and their 42-year-old grandmother, who came here from New York, tested positive. — PTI

Bangalore/New Delhi, June 14
After Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka has become the second southern state to report H1N1 flu cases with a mother-daughter duo testing positive for the virus, taking the total tally of those suffering from Swine Flu in the country to 20.

Talking to the TNS, P N Sreenivasichari, health commissioner of Karnataka, said Rafiya Sultana (29) and Rida (3) had come to Bangalore from New Jersey in an Air France flight on the early hours of Friday (June 12). “By the time the test reports came, they were already hospitalised in the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases”, he said.

Sreenivasichari said 28 samples were sent to the laboratory for tests. “Reports with regard to 23 samples have come and till now we have just have two positive cases,” he said, adding that the mother and the daughter have been isolated from other patients in the hospital. “We are also trying to keep a watch on their co-passengers in the Air France flight for possible signs of infections. The seat numbers of the two infected persons were 42A and 42B. A doctor was sitting in the adjacent seat. His sample, however, has tested negative”, the health commissioner said.

Sreenivasichari said screening of international passengers at the Bangalore International Airport for possible H1N1 flu symptoms was on. “Till date more than 1.38 lakh passengers have been screened. We have adequate supply of medicines for tackling the ailment,” he added.

According to a statement by the Union Health Ministry as many as 272 samples have been tested do far. Of these 90 were taken during health screening at international airports and the rest were samples from persons who had come to the authorities on their own. Of the 20 cases, eleven have been discharged. The other passengers are stable and remain in hospitals. The situation is being monitored.

PTI adds: Three fresh cases of suspected Swine flu were admitted to Chest Hospital in Hyderabad today, taking the number of persons under observation at the hospital to seven. They include a nine-year-old boy who came from New York and was detected with the flu symptoms by airport authorities, said superintendent of Chest Hospital, Dr SV Prasad. Another suspect is a 43-year-old lady who arrived from Kuwait. She was quarantined with suspected symptoms. The third suspect is a five-year-old girl who had come from USA on June 13 and went to Karimnagar, Prasad said.

She returned back to Hyderabad with symptoms and has now been quarantined as a suspect, he said. Earlier, a 32-year-old lady, who arrived from New York, was admitted to the hospital after she developed the flu symptoms. She is mother of two boys aged four and one-and-half years, quarantined yesterday as suspects, Prasad said.