Sunday, June 7, 2009

India-Swine flu reaches capital, 2 infected

Jun 2009, 0229 hrs IST, Kounteya Sinha, TNN
NEW DELHI: Delhi reported its first case of human-to-human transmission of the deadly H1N1 influenza virus on Sunday with scientists confirming
that an infected middle aged man who had recently returned from New York had passed on the virus to his 60-year-old mother, who had been nursing him for the past three days.


The 35-year-old man, believed to be a close relative of a well-known businessman associated with a pharma company, had returned to Delhi on June 2 from New York onboard an Air India flight (AI-102) and developed symptoms of H1N1 swine flu on June 4, following which he tested positive.

The passenger was put on quarantine inside his farmhouse at Rajokri near the Palam airport. On Sunday, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed that the man's mother has also tested positive.

The sample is, however, being sent to National Institute of Virology (Pune) for final confirmation.

Union health ministry officials told TOI, ``Both the man and his mother were administered Tamiflu on June 4 even before their samples tested positive. The samples of the servants in the house have also been picked up. The man was travelling in the business class of Air India from New York, which had just one more passenger who is now being tracked down.''

The total number of H1N1 cases in India has climbed to 10 since the virus surfaced in the country on May 16. H1N1, which scientists fear could be the world's next pandemic, has spread to 69 countries, infected more than 22,000 people and killed 125.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad saw its second case of human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus, the latest victim being a 25-year-old passenger who sat next to the 20-year-old medical student who got infected after returning from a holiday in Toronto on June 3.

The passenger was sitting in the row next to the infected student in British Airways flight BA 277.
All his close contacts are being traced and would be administered Tamiflu, the only anti-viral known to be effective against H1N1, as a preventive measure.

Hyderabad had reported its first case of local human-to-human transmission of H1N1 on Saturday when a 28-year-old man who had arrived in the city from the US was found to have passed the infection to his brother.

Even though Union health ministry officials say there is still no evidence yet of a cluster of cases in India that would entail banning all public meetings and putting in place social distancing mechanisms, they admit that cases will definitely start to spread far and wide.

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