Swine flu: first case in Delhi,10 so far

Another male passenger,25,in Hyderabad tested positive for the virus on Sunday,after having contracted the flu from a 28-year-old techie on a British Airways flight (BA 277). The techie had also transmitted the virus to his brother in Hyderabad and a woman and her four-year-old daughter who were travelling on the same flight. All four of them have been put on medication.

“So far,four passengers of the same flight have tested positive. We have,therefore,told the state health authorities to administer Tamiflu to all the passengers who travelled on the flight,” a senior official in the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said.

Epidemiologists say if more of their contacts test positive,a cluster containment strategy will have to be adopted whereby the whole group will have to be put on Tamiflu and monitored.

Anticipating that the virus may behave “wildly” as the temperature goes down with the onset of the Monsoon,the Union Health Ministry has started readying contingency and pandemic preparedness plans. “A tropical country like India may see more influenza activity from monsoon to winters. About 10 labs,therefore,have been strengthened. Training has been going on and necessary equipment has reached them,” said Dr A C Mishra,Director of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

Health Ministry officials,on the other hand,are confident. “We have enhanced the stockpile of Tamiflu from one million to 10 million doses. We have also made an arrangement with the producers who will maintain 6 million doses,” Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said.

“There is no reason for panic. We have a task force which is monitoring the situation on a daily basis,in touch with the WHO,” said Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.