No reports of suspected swine flu in India: WHO

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) India has not reported any
suspected case of deadly swine flu so far and the country has
"tremendous capacity" to deal with the situation in the event
of an outbreak of the influenza, the World Health Organisation
(WHO) said Thursday.

"India has not reported any case of swine flu. For
that matter, none of the South East Asian countries have
reported any suspected case," Dr J P Narain, Director,
Communicable Diseases, WHO, South-East Asia region, said.

"They (India) have tremendous capacity to deal with
any kind of situation and it is very much in the forefront of
prepardeness... capacity is very much there... we have
absolutely no doubt about that," he told reporters here.

On reports of a suspected swine flu case in Hyderabad,
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director of WHO,
said the laboratory tests of the person who was suspected to
have the flu tested negative.

The WHO authorities said situation continues to evolve
rapidly and that as of Wednesday nine countries have
officially reported 148 cases of swine influenza A/H 1N1
infection.

Narain said while Mexico has confirmed 26 human cases
of infection, including seven deaths, Canada has reported 13
laboratory confirmed cases, Austria (1), Germany (3), israel
(2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and the United Kingdom (5).

Asked whether the WHO was satisfied with India's
response so far, Narain said: "India has surveillance and also
the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and the
country followed all the steps."

He said the IDSP has an "excellent system" of
connectivity between districts and states and the country was
in the forefront in preparedness.

Responding to a question, he said the WHO regional
office has 3 million stockpile of Tamiflu treatments and the
world health body's headquarters has an additional 3.5 million
Tamiflu treatments.

He said only one suspected case of Swine flu was
reported in Thailand and that the laboratory tests of the
person tested negative.

"South East Asian countries are prepared for any
eventuality and have stepped their surveillance," Poonam said.

Asked about the origin of the virus, Narain said: "it is
too early to tell about the origin... the investigations will
unravel the origin of the virus. It is just the beginning."

He said the initial case was reported from Mexico and the
WHO was in the process of collecting evidence to ascertain
from where the flu originated.

Narain said the swine influenza is now in the fifth phase
which is characterised by human-to-human spread of the virus
into atleast two countries in one WHO region.

"While most countries will not be affected at this stage,
the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic
is imminent and that the time to finalise the organisation,
communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation
measures is short," Narain said.

He said the WHO will confirm that a person has been
infected with Swine Flu only if the laboratrical diagnosis
confirm the presence of influenza.

Narain said there may be suspected cases of the flu given
the kind of surveillance that the countries have put in place.

Asked about the usage of thermal scanner, which India has
been opposing, he said, "there are certain specific
interventions needed to put in place. It is according to the
conditions in that particular country." PTI