Two suspected cases of Swine flu in India

As the world reels under threat from the fast spreading deadly H1n1 flu, India, one of the few countries not yet affected by the virus, has come under the scanner two following recent reports of two suspected cases.

A New Delhi hospital is monitoring two patients suspected of having the swine flu, otherwise called the H1n1 flu, as the country awaits confirmation. One of the few countries, where the flu has not yet struck, desperate measures are being undertaken to contain the flu, where all major airports are being equipped with scanners and enough medical facilities to detect and isolate suspected cases, as in the case of the two men who arrived on Saturday morning. One of them was a 25 yr old, local resident of the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi, returning from Texas, US, and the other a middle aged UK citizen visiting the country. The two patients have been admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, in the Capital, under observation. As quoted by Mail Today,

Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, VM Katoch said, "Background immunity against similar viruses was a factor in protecting India from the dreaded SARS in 2003. A similar phenomenon may prove to be a protective against the flu virus." He added that the yellow fever virus had not been able to cause infection in India because almost everybody in the country has protective antibodies against a virus similar to it called the West Nile Virus.

Katoch further said the current hot weather in India may also deter infection by the flu virus in India. However, the virus will be able to spread in air-conditioned environments and at homes where temperatures are less. Droplets containing the virus can travel up to six feet.

About 250,000 capsules of Tamiflu drug, 18000 personal protective equipment and over 100,000 triple layer surgical masks have been dispatched to regional offices of health ministry to cut short response time in case a confirmed list of flu cases are reported. The flu has so far caused more than 176 deaths in Mexico and spread to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands and many more suspected cases have been reported from different parts of the world. If confirmed, this will be the first case of H1N1 flu in a country of over 1.1 billion people.