Thaindian News

Agartala, Aug 13 (IANS) An engineering student studying in swine flu-hit Pune was Thursday admitted to a hospital here with symptoms of the disease, in the first such case in the northeastern state, doctors said.
The 21-year-old student, who returned from Pune Tuesday, was admitted to the Agartala Government Medical College and Hospital, after he displayed symptoms of swine flu and his blood samples have been sent to Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) in Kolkata for examination, physician Pradip Bhowmik told IANS.

“The patient has been isolated and is under treatment. We expect the report from CDC by Friday and then the appropriate course of treatment would be undertaken,” he added.

For early detection and treatment, the Tripura government has set up counters at the India-Bangladesh check posts and Agartala airport to enable visitors to report any swine flu like symptoms and to maintain a record.

“To meet any possible outbreak of the disease, the state government has taken urgent steps to stock adequate quantity of Tamiflu, protective gear, and influenza testing kits in all the district and sub-divisional headquarters,” said state Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty.

In northeast India, a 19-year-old Manipuri woman fencer and a 17-year-old Meghalaya footballer were tested positive for the swine flu disease earlier this month.

The Manipuri fencer had returned from a competition in Singapore while the Meghalaya soccer player had returned from Britain recently. Both of them are now under treatment in Imphal and Shillong respectively.

Several teams of experts from the central health ministry are now visiting the northeastern states to impart training to doctors and to supervise the treatment facilities developed in these states.

All the states in the northeast have been put on swine flu alert to prevent outbreak of the disease and a number of observation centres set up at the border check posts and airports.

“Following the direction of the health ministry, one hospital in each district of the seven northeastern states has been equipped to treat patients infected with H1N1 virus,” said A.C. Dey, one of the experts from New Delhi.