The Hindu : Front Page : One more swine flu case in Hyderabad

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Friday, Jun 05, 2009
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One more swine flu case in Hyderabad

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: The number of persons who have tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) flu virus rose to three in Hyderabad and five in the country on Thursday. A 28-year-old software professional, who returned here after a month’s stay in Philadelphia on May 31 was confirmed infected, health authorities said on Thursday.

The 28-year-old, hailing from Tamil Nadu but working in a Hyderabad-based software company, is in the special isolation room at the Government General and Chest Hospital, Erragadda. With this, the hospital now has two positive cases admitted in separate isolation rooms. Both, the doctors say, are stable.

Incidentally, the 20-year-old medical student and the 28-year-old software professional arrived in the same flight (BA 277) albeit on different dates. The former came here on May 30 while the latter reached a day later. Both had no symptoms when they were screened at the International airport, but developed them subsequently.

The country’s first positive case, a 23-year-old student of Indiana University in Bloomington, was also reported from Hyderabad on May 16. The student recovered and was discharged after isolation and antiviral drug treatment for 10 days in the hospital.

With two cases getting confirmed in as many days, authorities launched a massive drive to identify co-passengers of the patients. They contacted the family members of the medical student and administered them with antiviral drugs as a precaution.

“By Thursday night, a co-passenger of the medical student could be admitted, as he had flu-like symptoms,” State coordinator for influenza A (H1N1) flu virus K. Subhakar said.

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