A ten-hour visit to Mexico, where the swine flu outbreak was first reported, may turn out to be costly for a 57-year-old Worli resident.
A ten-hour visit to Mexico, where the swine flu outbreak was first reported, may turn out to be costly for a 57-year-old Worli resident.
The man (name withheld), who visited Mexico on April 23, for a period of eight to 10 hours, came to India on April 26 from New York. On Sunday morning, he complained of fever, cough and cold — all symptoms of swine flu. A team of doctors from Kasturba Hospital have collected a throat swab, state health authorities confirmed.
“His wife, who is a doctor, called the helpline of the Delhi-based National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), and informed us. A team was immediately dispatched from Kasturba Hospital to check the passenger and collect blood samples,” said Dr DS Dakure, state director general of health services (DGHS).
However, this may be a case of the authorities considering prevention better than cure. “He has mild fever now, and has become asymptomatic,” said Dakure. “However, as a precautionary measure, we have sent his throat swab for testing to the National Institute of Virology, (NIV), Pune,” he added. The report is expected in a couple of days.
The authorities also added that the patient would not be quarantined. “We do not need to quarantine him as the incubation period for the H1N1 flu virus is two to three days.
And it has been more than seven days since his arrival in the city,” Dr Dakure explained.
According to sources, 9,544 passengers arrived from foreign countries to the city in the past 24 hours. Amongst them 2,837 passengers coming from affected countries were screened but they did not show any symptoms of swine flu.
However the BMC denied that it was a case of swine flu. A BMC official said that there was no need to panic.
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