Kolkata: Swine flu has resurfaced in West Bengal after a gap of almost three years, confirmed officials of the State’s Department of Health and Family Welfare. According to the officials, “two case of H1N1 have been identified in the districts and one in the city,” said Asit Biswas, official spokesperson for the department. The last case of swine flu in West Bengal was reported in 2009.
“We have already notified to all state hospitals that there may be a probability of the swine flu revisiting the city. All hospitals are advised to conduct tests on patience who have been suffering from chronic cold, cough and breathing trouble, the common symptoms, which are generally treated as allergy,” Sekhar Chakrabarti, director of National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases.
“Early this month, a nine-year-old child from the North 24 Paraganas district tested positive for the H1N1 virus. A few days ago, a 62-year-old resident of north Kolkata was admitted to a private hospital. The samples collected from him were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and tested positive for the virus,” added Biswas. They have been shifted to the isolation ward of the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in the city.
Though the disease is not epidemic, official’s fear that in case of breakout there is hardly any infrastructure to cope with. “The IDH doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle large number of patients if the disease takes endemic proportions. We will ask all private and major government hospitals all over the state to prepare isolation wards of at least six beds. This is critical as other patients can get affected as this disease spreads though human tough,” added a senior official of the heath department.
