Thaindian News

Hyderabad, June 18 (IANS) An eight-year-old girl Thursday tested positive for influenza A(H1N1) here, taking the total number of swine flu cases in Andhra Pradesh to 14 — the highest in India.
Doctors at the Government Chest Hospital said the girl, who had come from New Jersey, was confirmed to be infected after her samples were tested at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi.

She is the seventh child to have tested positive since May 16, when India’s first swine flu case was confirmed here.

The girl has been quarantined and is being treated at the Chest Hospital, the nodal centre for swine flu cases.

The latest case increased the number of patients at the hospital to eight, including two suspected cases. Eight others who tested positive were treated and discharged from the hospital in the past month.

A nine-year-old boy, who also came from New Jersey, was found to be infected Tuesday.

Except one, all infected people came from abroad. The lone local resident who was found infected without travelling abroad contracted the virus from his brother, a techie who had come from Philadelphia.

The hospital is also awaiting test results of two suspected cases, which include a youth who arrived here Wednesday from Kuwait.

The medical teams posted at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here are screening all international air passengers. On an average, the authorities are screening 2,000 passengers every day. They have so far screened over 125,000 passengers since April 30.

Those found with visible symptoms are being quarantined and sent directly to the Chest Hospital. So far, the hospital has received 55 suspected cases but only 14 of them tested positive.