NIV wants Bangalore Centre to start testing swabs

Briefing on the steps taken by the Health Services Department, Joint Director, Communicable Diseases Dr Cheluvaraj said, "We have alerted the Government Hospitals in 14 districts and have distributed the antiviral drug (Tamiflu) too.  Districts like Bangalore Rural, Tumkur, Kolar, Chikaballpur will be handled from Bangalore itself."

Meanwhile, National Institute of Virology, Pune has asked authorities in Bangalore to start testing swabs at NIMHANS Lab.  Due to the mad rush in Pune, where they have collected more than 300 swabs for testing, NIV has refused to receive samples from Bangalore.
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) received more than 100 patients at their institute on Thursday.  They have collected around 101 throat swabs which need to be tested for H1N1 Influenza.

But, the Lab set up in NIMHANS which is currently doing parallel testing along with National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) can handle only 15 samples one time.  Testing around 100 samples might take 2-3 days.

RGICD have still not received test results of thirty-nine samples sent on Wednesday.  On Thursday, the RGICD received around 104 patients, many of whom were referred from private practitioners across the City.  Twenty-three-year old girl who was instructed to visit RGICD by a private doctor apparently collapsed at the Institute. Sources from the Hospital said, “The girl was running high temperature and she was not able to stand in the queue for screening”.  The girl was later given fluids and her swab was collected for testing.

Out of the 100 suspected cases who visited RGICD, more than 50% were paediatric cases  with the age group from 1-8 years.  There was one patient reported at the Command Hospital and one at Wockhardt Hospital on Thursday.