India-Human to human spread reported

Hyderabad/ND, Jun 6: The first case of human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus of swine flu in the country was reported from Hyderabad, raising concerns and pushing up the number of persons af-flicted by the disease to seven today.
The human-to-human transmission took place when a man, who came back from the United States on May 31, infected his youn-ger brother who was living in Hyderabad. Both of them have tested positive for the disease.
One more case was re-ported in Karimnagar locali- ty of Hyderabad. A mother-son duo, who were sitting two rows behind the pas-senger from the United Sta- tes, also reported symptoms of flu.
While the child tested positive, the results of the tests on the mother are yet to come.
Though the severity of the infection cannot be said to be more, human-to-human transmission is a cause of concern as this means that the virus is cir-culating in the environment now, Director of the Indian Council for Medical Res-earch (ICMR) Dr VN Katoch told said.
"There might also be a spurt in the cases of swine flu after September as gene-rally we see an increase in cases of common influenza during this period," he said.
The Centre has taken im-mediate steps and rushed Rapid Action Teams to Hy-derabad to spruce up con- tainment measures.
The total number of posi-tive cases has gone upto seven with the latest cases from Hyderabad.
According to Shivlal, Di-rector of the National Ins- titute of Communicable Di-seases (NICD), who headed a Central team to Hydera-bad, though basic measures have to be taken by the State Government, the Centre has formed two teams to moni-tor the situation in Hyde- rabad and Karimnagar.
The Government has al-ready banned the import of livestock and its products from all countries in wake of the spread of the swine flu.
It has also prohibited im-ports of live poultry, egg and its products, live pigs, pathological material, un-processed feathers from the countries reporting avian influenza.
The World Health Orga-nisation has so far reported 19,273 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 infection from 66 countries as on June 3, 2009. The disease has so far claimed 117 lives. Health screening of passengers coming from affected countries is continuing at 21 international airports in India. PTI