Flu spreads to B'lore, other cities

 
A 29-year-old woman and her three-year-old child, quarantined at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) in the City, were tested positive on Sunday.

Confirming reports that the throat swabs of a three-year-old girl and her 29-year-old mother tested positive, RGICD director Shashidhar Buggi said both of them were currently undergoing treatment and were stable.

“We have started administering dosages of Tami Flu since the test results turned positive.  Samples of their throat swabs will be collected daily and sent for test to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune.

The patients will be kept on fluid diet during the quarantine treatment period,” he said. He added that there was sufficient stock of medicines (Tami Flu) and six beds are available at the RGICD isolation wards. Another doctor from RGICD said that the patients will be quarantined for another 7-10 days.

20 confirmed cases

“The child will be isolated for a longer time as the virus shelters for long in a paediatric case,”the doctor said. The two patients had arrived in an Air France flight.

According to the officials of health ministry in New Delhi, of the 20 confirmed cases, eleven have been discharged and the rest are undergoing treatment. Their their condition was stable, they said.

“So far, samples of 272 persons have been tested and among which 90 were identified through health screening at international airports and the rest were samples from persons who reported to hospitals on their own,” a ministry statement.

Meanwhile, one of the 30 school students from Jalandhar, who had been to the US on an educational trip, has been tested positive for swine flu. He has been admitted to a hospital in Delhi, while the doctors have collected the blood samples of 29 other batchmates including two who showed the symptoms of fever.

All the students are studying in Class XII at the Guru Amar Dass Public School in Jalandhar. After returning from the US, one of them, who complained of dizziness and fever, was rushed to a hospital in Delhi where he was found positive for swine flu, doctors said.

“The teenager had arrived from Orlando to Delhi via New York on board Qatar Airlines QR 231 flight and was quarantined at the Delhi Airport June 13. The boy was travelling with a group of 31 school children from Jalandhar. The Punjab government has been requested to follow up these children,” the health ministry said here in a statement.

Meanwhile, a family in Chandigarh has been quarantined in their house by the health authorities after one of their relatives tested positive for swine flu in Delhi. The family had been to Delhi to see-off their daughter who studies in Australia.

They were met at the airport by a woman relative from the US who complained of dizziness, fever and sore throat. The doctors found her positive for swine flu.

The Centre had sent instructions to the health authorities here for quarantining the family at their house for a week as a precautionary measure.

An official of the health department said the blood samples of the family had been taken and were sent for testing. So far, the Chandigarh health department has sent blood samples of four persons who showed the symptoms of suspected flu, but all of them were reported negative.

In Hyderabad, three persons with suspected symptoms were admitted to the Chest Hospital, its Superintendent Dr S V Prasad said.