Suspected cases of H1N1: Techies test negative

Director of Health Service, from the Government of Karnataka, Usha Vasunkar said, “The reports from NIV, Pune have tested negative for the flu. We have directed the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Disease to discharge the two patients”

Health Commissioner V C Srinivasachari and sources at NICD also confirmed that the patients Mahindra Reddy and Satyajit Singh Chauhan are not infected with the Influenza A H1N1 virus.  The two software professionals had arrived at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) on 7 May and had shown swine flu symptoms after the screening process.
Maheedhar Reddy and Satyajit Singh Chauhan, said they both were happy and relieved the tests confirmed as negative on Saturday.

Reddy who had returned from a three months business trip to Louisville, Kentucky said that he was confident that he had not caught the H1N1 Flu as there was only one case reported in the state of Kentucky.

“The first thing I did after getting discharged was meeting my family, I missed them a lot,” said Chauhan.

Meanwhile another H1N1 Flu suspect was referred to RGICD on Saturday. He was cleared at Bangalore International Airport on after landing from New York on April 26 as he was asymptomatic according to sources.

However, on examination he did not show all the symptoms and was given prophylatics for upper respiratory infection said sources.

His case will be followed up just in case his symptoms worsen, he added.

Equipment in short supply

Personal protection equipment and N95 masks are in short supply at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) according to highly placed sources. The Institute has also requested the Dean and Director of Bangalore Medical College to depute more PG students as the staff  at RGICD are overburdened.

Personal protection equipment include gowns with hoods, foot cover etc and the N95 masks are used by the doctors and nurses attending to H1N1 Flu suspects in quarantine.

Sources also said that the Institute has only two PG students tending not only to the normal case load but also the H1N1 Flu suspects.