7 Indians test positive for swine flu, total up to 30

New Delhi, June 15 (PTI) Seven students in the northern
Indian town of Jalandhar, who returned from the United States,
tested positive for swine flu, taking the total number of
people affected by the virus across the country to 30 even as
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Monday asked travellers
to defer their plans of going abroad till the disease was
globally under control.

A day after a boy tested positive in Jalandhar, seven
out of the 10 students who had accompanied him to the US also
developed flu symptoms and tested positive for the disease, a
senior health ministry official said adding, however, all of
them are stable and responding to treatment.

The remaining 24 children, their family and social
contacts and those sitting in proximity to them in the flight
have been identified and put on chemoprophylaxis.

A Central Rapid Response Team has been deployed in
Jalandhar since last night.

Reacting to the increase in the number of cases, Azad
told reporters that people, specially students, should defer
travelling to flu-affected countries till the situation was
under control.

"Till this disease is controlled globally, I would like
to request young people from educational institutions going
abroad that they can suspend their visits for the time being,"
he said adding "they can go after 2-3 months."

However, Azad said the disease was under control in
India as nearly half of those affected have been cured.

"Medicine is available in plenty and the most
important thing is that this disease is 100 per cent curable",
he said.

Azad said that "out of total 23 cases, 11 have already
been treated and discharged. So, you are only left with 12
cases."

Keeping in view the size and population of the
country, 11-12 cases is nothing as compared to the most
developed countries, he added.

The minister held a meeting with senior officials to
review the state of preparedness to tackle the spread of swine
flu virus.

He asked the Director General of Health Services to
rush a Rapid Response Team to Punjab, where a group of
students coming from the US showed symptoms of the disease,
and ensure adequate availability of Tamiflu to check the
spread of the disease.

A 45-year-old woman, who accompanied the Hyderabad
children to the US, has tested positive. Two other children--
four year old and eight year old-- travelled from Newark to
Mumbai before reaching Hyderabad, also developed swine flu
symptoms and have tested positive.

Of the total 30 cases, 11 have been discharged.

In Bangalore, a 29-year-old woman and her child, who
tested positive for swine flu, will be kept at the Rajiv
Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases here for a few more days
for further tests even as five other suspected cases have
tested negative for the virus. PTI SPC
DEP