By IANS,
New Delhi/Bangalore : Four people tested positive for swine flu in the national capital Thursday, taking the total number of influenza A (H1N1) cases in India to 43, health officials said. A dozen of them have already been discharged from hospitals.
“Four more people tested positive for the swine flu Thursday,” Delhi Health Secretary J.P. Singh told IANS.
He said all of them have been hospitalised at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
“All the affected people either came from the US or touched base with the US before coming to India. They have been kept in isolation and their contacts are being identified,” he said.
In Bangalore, three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were tested positive for the swine flu.
“Two businessman, aged 38 and 48, who arrived in the IT city from Bangkok a couple of days back were found positive with A H1N1 virus. The 12-year-old boy had returned from Los Angeles,” S. Buggi, director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bangalore, told IANS.
“Of the 15 patients from whom we took samples couple of days back, three were found positive with the flu. But there is nothing to worry, all of them are doing well and healthy. We have kept them in isolation wards,” he said, adding that the boy’s family has tested negative.
With these fresh cases, Bangalore has reported five flu cases so far and all of them are undergoing treatment at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases.
“The 29-year-old woman and her three-year-old daughter, the first two confirmed cases to be suffering from H1N1 influenza in Bangalore, are recovering now and are under medication. Their latest throat swab samples have turned negative,” said Buggi.
“However, they still need to stay at the hospital for another week to completely recover from the virus influenza,” he added.
An eight-year-old girl in Hyderabad, who had come from New Jersey, was confirmed to be infected after her samples were tested at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi.
The 43 cases across the country include 14 in Hyderabad, 13 in Delhi, eight in Jalandhar and five in Bangalore. At least 12 of them have been discharged.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 76 countries have officially reported 39,620 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 167 deaths. Most of these deaths have been reported from Mexico and the US.