Swine flu: India on alert

With the World Health Organisation (WHO) designating swine influenza outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern and raising the pandemic alert to level 4, India has alerted all international airports and ports for identifying persons with suspected infection who could be arriving from the affected countries including Mexico, the US, the UK, France, Canada and New Zealand. As per WHO reports, till Monday the United States government has reported 40 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A(H1N1), with no deaths. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection, including seven deaths. Canada has reported six cases, with no deaths, while Spain has reported one case, with no deaths. Not only all passengers coming from these countries would be screened but also those who have arrived in India till ten days back would be tracked down and asked to report to the nearest medical centre. Any person suspected to have influenza will be isolated at the airport and put on treatment. Within the next two days, nine international airports - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi and Goa will have additional medical and paramedical staff. A round-the-clock call centre under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (phone number 1075) will also be attending calls from the public regarding reporting of influenza-like illness. The Indian Government has also advised those travelling to affected areas to curtail non-essential travel.

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