Suspected swine flu patient dies

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 31

A family of a locality near Gilwali Gate has claimed that one (39-year-old) of its members has died of swine flu. The deceased was admitted to a private hospital where he died after four days of treatment.

However, health officials haven’t confirmed it as they say that most of the private hospitals get tests conducted from private labs which test presence of only H1 virus. “As per official guidelines, a patient is a confirmed swine flu case only if he or she tests positive for both H1 and N1 viruses,” said Dr Navdeep Kaur, nodal officer for swine flu. She stated that the total of deaths and positive cases in the district so far had been three and seven, respectively.

She appealed to the residents to get their samples tested from swine flu testing facility at the Government Medical College (GMC) here. “In this region, the other to competent labs are at the GMC, Patiala, and PGI, Chandigarh,” she said.

Civil Surgeon Dr Hardeep Singh Ghai said, “The government facilities conduct the test for free, but private labs charge around Rs 8,500. Even then it is of no use as they can test presence of only H1 virus.” He said that government facilities were well-equipped to handle the situation and people should prefer these facilities.