NEW DELHI: With a 17-year-old boy who travelled from Orlando to Delhi via New York testing positive, the total number of swine flu cases in the city has gone up to six.
The teenager who reached Delhi on June 13 has been quarantined and is being treated at the Airport Health Organisation facility. He was travelling with a group of 31 school children from Jalandhar and the Punjab Government has been requested to follow up with the children.
Meanwhile, with Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital “letting off” a 38-year-old person who was brought to the hospital on Saturday night with suspected swine flu after his arrival from Germany, the State Health Department on Sunday decided to take up the issue of security of suspected flu cases leaving government hospitals.
“We have to ensure that people with symptoms of the flu remain quarantine and under observation till their results come out as negative for the flu. On Saturday, a 38-year-old resident of Faridabad was allowed to leave the hospital before his final results were out. We cannot allow this to happen till the person has tested negative. In this case, doctors at the hospital informed us that the man was allowed to go because he was asymptomatic, but if he was brought in as a suspect case the protocol should have been followed,” said Delhi Government’s Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) J.P. Singh.
17-year-old boy who travelled from Orlando to Delhi via New York testing positive, the total number of swine flu cases in the city has gone up to six.
The department will be meeting soon to decide the need for enhanced security in city hospitals to ensure that suspected cases stay till they get an all clear. “We will have to work out a strategy in consultation with the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry about the protocol to be followed in these cases. The State Department is even ready to provide additional security to hospitals in case there is a demand,” he added.
Delhi Health Minister Kiran said: “So far our hospitals have been careful and are trying their best to ensure that no suspected flu-affected person leaves the hospital without informing the hospital authorities. We will be taking a meeting of nodal officers of various government hospitals on Monday to ensure that work to contain the flu goes on without a problem and that the surveillance system stays robust. The good news is that the people under treatment with us for the flu are showing signs of improvement and so far we are well prepared in terms of medicine stock and trained manpower.”
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