Following the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaration that swine flu is now a pandemic, citizens seem to be very concerned about catching the virus. In two separate incidents on Saturday, people have got themselves quarantined fearing that they might have caught the killer virus.
A lady in Pune, who came back from London about a month back, walked in the Naidu Hospital at around 11am suspecting that she was affected by the H1N1 virus. “She walked in with symptoms of fever and cold and wanted to be sure that she was not suffering from the virus,” said Dr Uddhav Gavande, nodal officer for surveillance, Maharashtra health services. Her samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
Similarly, a couple from Kandivali got jitters after they developed symptoms following their visit to Hyderabad. “The 31-year-old husband and his 29-year-old wife went to the Kasturba Hospital voluntarily and sought a thorough check-up,” said Dr Jairaj Thanekar, executive health officer, BMC. “They were quarantined and their throat samples have been sent for tests on Saturday evening,” he said.
Gavande said that both the cases were that of self-reporting. “Their reports will be known by Monday,” he said. Among the 237 samples of suspected H1N1 tested in India, 82 were identified through health screening at international airports and the rest were samples from persons who have self-reported.
