14 more swine flu cases in Delhi

Fourteen more people tested positive for swine flu in the national capital on Saturday, including one from the elite Sanskriti school, taking the total number of people infected with the disease to 215 here.

Apart from this, 16 suspected patients of swine flu were admitted to hospitals across the city, a senior health ministry official of Delhi government said.

One case was confirmed from Sanskriti school, he said adding, a suspected case had tested negative.

The school had declared holidays on Friday and would reopen on Monday.

Swine flu cases have shown a sharp rise across the country with 96 more persons testing positive for the virus on Friday. The government has, however, said there is no cause for panic.

Doctors quarantined
The head of the swine flu screening centre at the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and a junior doctor have been put under home quarantine for suspected influenza A (H1N1).
“I am now home, quarantined for two days,” S K Sharma, chief medical officer of the swine flu detection centre at the premium government-run hospital said.

“You know, we are too much exposed to the virus as we spend over 12 hours in the testing centre. My sample has been sent for tests and the result will come in 48 hours,” he said.

Authorities at the hospital said one more doctor who was deployed in the out patient department has also been home quarantined.

Both the doctors are under medication.

“I am taking Tamiflu for two days and if my samples come positive then I shall take medicine for three more days. If found negative then I am ready to get back to work,” Sharma said, adding he does not have many of the symptoms. He hoped his sample would be negative. “Finally, I got some holidays!” the medical officer said in a lighter vein.

On Friday, three doctors in the capital had tested positive for the contagious virus.

So far, India has reported 712 swine flu cases; 490 have been discharged after treatment.

Update

Patient escapes from Pune hospital
A 21-year-old youth with suspected swine flu left government-owned Sassoon Hospital in Pune without the knowledge of the authorities and has been listed as an “absconding” patient, reports PTI from Pune. His test report was still awaited. The Sassoon Hospital authorities have informed the police about the patient who had not given complete address.
 
One flees hospital in Lucknow
A suspected H1N1 patient, who had been quarantined in a government hospital in Lucknow, escaped on Saturday, reports DHNS from Lucknow. Mohammad Aslam, who had arrived at the Lucknow airport from Oman on Saturday morning, was kept in the isolation ward at the Balrampur Hospital. The district police has been asked to apprehend the patient.

West Bengal sounds red alert
The West Bengal government on Saturday sounded a red alert against the pandemic swine flu and decided to open two special clinics after a doctor serving at Infectious Diseases Hospital in the city was admitted with suspected symptoms of the disease, reports DHNS from Kolkata. So far, nine confirmed cases of H1N1 have been detected in Bengal. Five of them were sent home after their recovery.