Swine flu now widespread in & around city

The H1N1virus, that claimed its first victim in city on Monday, has now truly spread among general population even in and around city.
Patients testing positive no longer belong to the primary infection category ie those with history of travel abroad or to affected areas like Pune.

Among the positive cases reported in last fortnight, a large number belonged to secondary and tertiary infections. They had acquired infection locally. Fortunately, most of these are all mild cases and manageable with just the Fluvir tablets (tamiflu).

Newer cases also include a big number of doctors, their sons or daughters from both the medical colleges in city. Interestingly though, no doctor has contracted the virus from his or her patients. When the 15-year-old daughter of a Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) professor who has been visiting the swine flu OPD as well as isolation ward regularly tested positive, it sent panic waves not just in family but also among the GMCH staff. But neither the professor nor his wife tested positive. “This means the virus is spread all over and my daughter could have got the infection from school or elsewhere,” said the professor.

Similarly an anaesthetist working in cardiac surgery department of the super specialty hospital (SSH) at and a postgraduate student attached to tuberculosis department at GMCH have tested positive but authorities claim that both have no history of primary infection. Another 24-year-old woman medico, daughter of an extremely senior medical educationist, too tested positive.

“My daughter has recovered completely after medication given by GMCH. As a precautionary measure me and wife (who is a doctor and teacher at GMCH) have taken complete course of medicine. There is no cause to panic at all,” said the educationist.