New Delhi: The H1N1 influenza scare threatens to go out of hand in India with two co-passengers of the infected Hyderabad man who had tested positive last week showing symptoms of the ailment. All three of them were among 156 people on board the Emirates airline flight from New York to Hyderabad via Dubai that landed in the Andhra Pradesh capital last Wednesday.
The mother and son, who have been quarantined at a hospital in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, are close relatives of the infected 23-year-old, a student at Indiana University in the US. The student, who has been quarantined in a hospital in Hyderabad, is recovering and will be discharged soon. The woman and her 26-year-old son, who is a student of a university in New Jersey, were asymptomatic on arrival, but complained of cough and sore throat on Sunday evening, four days after their flight landed in Hyderabad.
They are undergoing treatment for the flu even as results of their clinical samples are awaited. All three cases are being treated with Oseltamivir, an anti-viral drug, according to health officials.
Emirates, meanwhile, has clarified that the 23-year-old had not declared any health issue and also passed the thermal scan at Dubai airport. The airline said it is monitoring the health of the cabin crew on board the New York-Hyderabad flight. Health officials fear that if the mother-son duo tests positive, the chances of the virus spreading in India would increase manifold as they have attended a marriage. Advisories have already been issued, asking people to come forward and get themselves tested if they show any symptoms of the flu.
Meanwhile, another air passenger was referred to hospital in Delhi after he showed signs of the flu. So far, samples of 66 persons have been tested of which only one -- the 23-year-old from Hyderabad -- tested positive for Influenza A (H1N1).-snip-
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