Surveillance in 3-km radius of Sukhna Lake complete

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Chandigarh, December 28

The house-to-house surveillance started by the UT Health Department 10 days ago in the wake of bird flu alert in the city completed today.

While a total of 19,000 houses located within the 3-km radius around Sukhna Lake were surveyed to assess the transmission of the H5N1 virus (causing bird flu) in human beings, no cases of infection were found. Also, the quarantine process of 34 officials involved in the culling of geese at Sukhna Lake on December 19 completed today and they will now be allowed to join back their workplaces.

During the 10-day surveillance programme, involving survey of houses in Sectors 1 to 10, 26, Bapudham Colony, Indira Colony and Mani Majra, five suspected cases were found but infection was ruled out in each of them.

“We have sent our report to the Union Health Ministry today. No infections were found in human beings,” said Dr Anil Garg, Nodal Officer for Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme, Chandigarh.

A helpline was also set up on December 24 by the UT Health Department at the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, here, to address the queries of residents. Since December 24, nearly 100 calls have been received so far.

Also, nearly 100 persons walked into the isolated screening wards of bird flu at the GMSH-16 over the past one week after suspecting flu-like symptoms. However, none were declared as suspected cases.