Suresh Dharur
Tribune News Service
Patients, attendants and hospital staff wear protective masks as a part of the precautionary measures after the death of a four-year-old in Chennai on Monday. — PTI |
Hyderabad, August 10
Andhra Pradesh, which is among the worst affected states in terms of swine flu infection, has stepped up efforts to meet any eventuality.
“We are on alert to check the spread of H1N1 virus. All possible precautions are being taken,” the state Health Minister D Nagender said here today. As part of the measures to deal with the emerging situation, five more nodal centres would be set up to deal with the flu cases, the Minister said. He, however, asked people not to panic in view of the deaths reported from Pune, Mumbai and Chennai.
AP has so far reported 74 H1N1 cases, one of the highest in the country. However, no one has died of the virus. As many as 69 cases of confirmed swine flu cases have been reported in Hyderabad, a majority of them software professionals coming from abroad after overseas assignments. Five positive cases were reported from coastal city of Visakhapatnam. All international air passengers are being screened at the airport here and those found with visible symptoms of H1N1 are being quarantined at two nodal centres. So far, over 2.40 lakh passengers have been screened at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here since April.
In fact, Hyderabad had reported the country’s first swine flu case on May 16. “A total of 221 persons underwent confirmatory tests for the flu and 74 of them were tested positive,” Nagender said. Of them, 72 persons were discharged after treatment, while two persons are still undergoing treatment at the Government Chest Hospital here. Following rapid spread of the virus in neighbouring states, the government has set up helpdesks at railway stations and inter-state bus depots to identify those coming from Pune and other cities with suspected swine flu symptoms.
The swine flu scare has hit the city’s booming IT sector badly. Such is the scare among the software professionals that a large number of employees from software companies are thronging the Government Chest Hospital, the nodal center for swine flu, every day to undergo screening tests. Fear is palpable among the employees at Hi-Tec City area, the hub of the technology companies.
The city is one of the most favoured IT destinations in the country and is home for over 350 software companies, employing about two lakh people. “At any given point of time, hundreds of software professionals will be travelling abroad on assignments. Information alerts have been sent about Swine Flu virus and the precautionary measures,” an official of the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association said.
