A day after a 14-year-old schoolgirl died in Pune of swine flu, doctors and experts on Tuesday warned that the H1N1 infections in the country could increase as the virus spreads faster during the monsoon and winter.
Experts said people need to be more vigilant and take precautions as the swine flu virus has entered the country.
"Surveillance and screening has to be given high priority. The virus has been mild so far, but it is a well-known fact that it could change its behaviour. And if it changes, then the virus could be more virulent," Randeep Guleria, head of medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said.
"The swine flu virus can spread rapidly during monsoon and winter months. Therefore, we could see more infections in the coming months. It could be serious," he added.
Pune residents rush to hospital for swine flu tests
Wearing face masks, hundreds of anxious people, including children, rushed to a referral hospital to take tests for the swine flu virus leading to chaos and police had to be called in to control the crowd.
Two days after a 14-year-old Pune school girl succumbed to the deadly virus to become India's first swine flu fatality, there was a sense of panic in the city, as doctors and authorities tried to calm frantic parents with children thronging the designated Naidu hospital for infectious diseases to take H1N1 influenza tests.
There were complaints galore by people referred to the Naidu hospital for the tests that they were not being attended properly but hospital authorities sought to downplay it saying the "whole burden" was on them.
Flu cases in country inch close to 600 mark
Twenty-two fresh cases of swine flu were reported from across the country today taking the total number of those afflicted to 596.
Five cases were reported from Delhi, three from Gurgaon, four from Mumbai, three from Pune, and one each from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mangalore, Jamshedpur, Chennai, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur.
In Delhi, four out of the five cases are contacts of previously reported positive patients who had reported tothe stipulated health facility.
Goa to invoke epidemic act to tackle swine flu
Goa will invoke the Epidemic control Act (ECA), 1897, to curb the spread of influenza A (H1N1) once the state's busy tourism season gets underway in October, Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane said on Wednesday.
Rane's announcement comes barely a day after the Maharashtra government invoked the act in Pune and Satara districtS after a 14-year-old Pune schoolgirl died of swine flu.
`Maharashtra has invoked the act because there are thousands of international guests arriving at its Mumbai airport. We don't feel it is required for Goa at this moment. But once the tourist season starts we will put this act into effect,` Rane told reporters.
The epidemic act gives health authorities the power to forcibly admit and treat any swine flu patient at a government-run hospital.
`If this (swine flu) is not controlled worldwide, Goa will have to enforce the act once the tourist season starts,` Rane said, adding that Goa receives tourists from all over the world, including from countries particularly affected by swine flu.
2 passengers quarantined in Chennai
Chennai: Two passengers were quarantined on their arrival from Singapore on Wednesday following suspected symptoms of swine flu.
Rajan Sekhar (25) and Simon Michael Joseph (35), both natives of Chennai, were referred to the Government Communicable Diseases Hospital at Tondiarpet here, airport sources said.
