Thaindian News

Chandigarh, July 28 (IANS) A 23-year-old resident of Punjab’s Patiala town, admitted to a Chandigarh hospital, has tested positive for the influenza A (H1N1) virus.
Officials said the patient from Patiala, about 70 km from here, had returned from Thailand last week. On Friday, he approached doctors at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here with complaints of fever and cold.

“Seeing his travel history, we admitted him in an isolated ward and sent his throat swab samples to NICD (National Institute of Communicable Disease) in New Delhi. We got his report yesterday evening that confirmed the infection,” H.C. Gera, Chandigarh’s nodal officer for swine flu, told IANS.

“We have also informed health officials in Patiala so they can quarantine the family members of the patient.”

This is the third confirmed case of swine flu in the city.

Two more Patiala residents were admitted Friday with similar symptoms but their reports were negative. Chandigarh has got two more suspected cases of swine flu — a 14-year-old boy from neighbouring Panchkula town who has returned from Malaysia and a 26-year-old woman who had been to Singapore.

Both are admitted in isolated wards at a government hospital here.

On Monday, a student from Patiala who had recently returned from Singapore tested positive for swine flu.

Punjab has reported over a dozen swine flu cases, most of them students from a school in Jalandhar, 150 km from Chandigarh, who had returned from a trip to NASA in the US.