Thaindian News

Lucknow, Aug 13 (IANS) Three more cases of swine flu were reported in Uttar Pradesh Thursday, taking the total number of influenza A (H1N1) patients in the state to 19, an official said.
“We had tested about 27 samples, of which three turned out to be positive,” said T.N. Dhole, head of the microbiology department at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), the only authorized swine flu testing centre here.

Meanwhile, 20 fresh samples have arrived at the SGPGIMS laboratory to determine the spread of the dreaded virus.

Testing of these samples had to be put on hold due to non-availability of testing kits, but Dhole said, “The kits would arrive from Delhi by tomorrow (Friday), so there is no cause to worry.”

Each kit with a capacity of testing 80-90 samples costs about Rs.193,000.

“Thankfully, the state government has sanctioned sufficient funds to purchase enough kits for carrying out at least 1,000 tests,” Dhole said.

The fresh cases were reported from Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi.

“That has taken the number of affected patients to 11 in Lucknow, three each in Kanpur and Varanasi, besides one in Allahabad,” the official said.

Despite the shooting number of swine flu cases in the city, Chief Medical Officer A.K. Shukla said there was no need to panic.

“Fortunately, none of the cases is in the secondary stage of the infection,” he said.

However, none of the patients found to be positive has agreed to get hospitalized.

“Their families did not want the detected cases to be hospitalized as they felt they were well equipped to keep the patients quarantined in their respective homes,” he said.

“But we are ensuring adequate supply of medicines and are also maintaining a round-the-clock vigil on each of the patients,” he added.