16th flu case detected; no need to panic, says Govt

Thermal testing at airports to scan passengers from abroad

A six-year-old girl, who flew in from the US, became the 16th infected case in India. The Health Ministry has requested the Indian missions abroad to issue an advisory along with the visa requesting the people to “defer their travel plans to India if they have flu like symptoms.”

Indian scientists are working on developing a vaccine for influenza A(H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, by the year end, health officials said.

The WHO on Thursday raised its alert against swine flu to the highest level — phase 6. The swine flu pandemic is the first since the Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1968 which killed one million people.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the country was “prepared at every level” to combat the highly infectious disease. “There is no need to worry or panic. We are prepared at every level — state, district and block. We have enough stock of medicines (Tamiflu),” Azad told reporters.

Azad also stressed that all the cases reported in India had come from the US. “Given the size and population of India, the number of positive cases is very less and the disease has not emanated locally. All the cases have come from outside, mainly from the US,” he said.

Measures taken

“All the cases are being treated, five patients have already been discharged.” Outlining the measures being taken to deal with the situation, Azad said: “Sixteen more labs are being activated, 10 million doses of Tamiflu have been procured and the Rapid Response Teams are being trained at state-levels. In future, these teams will also be operationalised at district-levels. Screening and isolation facilities were put in place well in time.”

On the Indian missions in affected countries requesting the authorities there to screen all the outbound passengers headed for India, the minister said: “I have already written to the Minister for External Affairs (S M Krishna). He has informed us (Health Ministry) that the matter is being taken up through the MEA missions in the concerned countries.”
Vineet Chawdhry, joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) have started working on developing a vaccine for swine flu, which would be out by the year end. Till date there is no vaccine for the flu and the anti-viral drug Tamiflu is being given to the infected.