The Government issued a travel advisory for those travelling to countries affected by swine flu and put in place a screening system for passengers coming from these nations.
The Government on Monday issued a travel advisory for those travelling to countries affected by swine flu and put in place a screening system for passengers coming from these nations.
All passengers coming from the affected countries -- Mexico, United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada and New Zealand -- would be screened and those who have reached here till 10 days back would be tracked down and asked to report to the nearest medical centre, director general Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Dr VN Katoch said at a press conference here.
The Government is also instituting surveillance of ports and international airports along with monitoring through Integrated Disease Surveillance units in the states, he said.
The country already has a stockpile of the effective drug Tamiflu which was used during the bird flu epidemic. "We have also asked for an additional one million Tamiflu to be procured," he said.
"As of now we are concentrating on prevention of the infection spreading from person to person as in India there is no scenario of the diseases spreading from animals till now," director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) Shivlal said.
The states have also been advised to review their preparedness to investigate and contain any suspected cluster of influenza like illness. Guidelines to this effect have been sent to all the state surveillance officers.
Apart from this, a 24-hour call centre would be attending to calls from the public regarding reporting of influenza like illnesses.
The screening of passengers would be done at a total of nine airports across the country including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
In Delhi, 32 additional doctors would be working in four shifts to help in the screening process. Passengers would be handed a proforma where they can voluntarily disclose if they have any symptoms or they can call back at the given numbers within 10 days in case they develop any of the symptoms.
Joint secretary in the Health Ministry Vineet Chaudhary said in India the threat was negligible as there was little organised rearing of pigs unlike the United States and Mexico.
The decision was taken at a meeting attended by senior officials of the health ministry on Monday morning.
In Mexico, the number of cases under observation have reached 1,614, from 1,324. Deaths have also been reported from the United States.
Swine influenza is known to be caused by influenza A subtypes H1N1,[4] H1N2,[4] H3N1,[5] H3N2,[4] and H2N3.
It infects people every year and is found typically in those who have been in contact with pigs, although there have been cases of person-to-person transmission.
Its symptoms include fever, disorientation, stiffness of the joints, vomiting and loss of consciousness leading to death.
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