Shillong: Three staff of a government
hospital here have tested positive for swine flu, taking the
total number of fresh cases in the state to five.
Two nurses and a ward boy of Shillong Civil Hospital are
suspected to have contracted the virus from the two patients,
both from the United States, who were taken ill and have also
tested positive for the H1N1 virus a few days back.
State's Director of Health Services K H Lakiang on Sunday
said the patients have been isolated and the department was
currently screening people who have come in contact with them.
The two US citizens who were on a visit to Shillong for a
Church meeting reported sick with swine flu-like symptoms on
October 30. Their nasal and throat samples were sent to
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED),
Kolkata, which confirmed they were positive.
Two days later the throat samples of nine people,
including five nurses and a ward boy – who was admitted with
flu like symptoms – were sent to the laboratory at Dibrugarh.
Three of them were found to be positive.
More than a dozen people who have come in contact with
the patients have been isolated as a precautionary measure and
treated with Tamiflu medicines, hospital sources said.
Earlier, Meghalaya has recorded six positive cases of
swine flu and they were treated and discharged from hospitals.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 08, 2009, 12:06