KOLKATA: Search on for swine flu suspect

Search on for swine flu suspect 9 Jun 2009, 0318 hrs IST, TNN

KOLKATA: Efforts are on to find the suspected swine-flu patient who landed on the Netaji Subhas International Airport on Saturday night. A team from ID Hospital Beliaghata was sent to the Kalyani address of Sutapa Bhattacharya on Monday. Sutapa had left the ID Hospital Beliaghata without heeding to the hospital authority's requests to admit herself in the isolation ward. Due to her forced exit, doctors could not perform any tests on her. "We have sent a team from the ID hospital to convince the woman to get quarantined and send her throat swab for tests for swine flu. We have also informed the district administration and police to coax her to report back to ID hospital," said director of medical services, Dr Aniruddha Kar. The 46-year-old had gone to Singapore on vacation with her family. She was brought to the hospital straight from the airport as a medical team present there detected symptoms of swine flu in her on landing. Hospital authorities said that Sutapa did not cooperate with them right from the beginning. She refused to go into the isolation ward despite being persuaded and walked off from the hospital. She alleged that doctors did not attend to her and claimed that the isolation ward of the hospital was filthy. "Till midnight, our staff there tried to convince her to move into the isolation ward. Sutapa refused and left forcibly with her relatives," added Kar. The health department said no action will be taken against any hospital staff as they tried their best to convince her. The isolation ward at the ID hospital is the only nodal agency where suspected swine-flu cases can be quarantined.