Govt on alert as India's swine flu tally crosses 100

New Delhi: As many as 11 people tested positive for swine flu on Monday. This has taken the total number of swine flu cases in India to 104.

India is now further strengthening its screening and testing facilities to contain the spread of the influenza A (H1N1) virus that has created havoc globally.

"Eleven cases were reported today (Monday). Now, India has 104 swine flu cases,? Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters in the Capital.

He said of the total 104, 61 have been discharged from hospitals after complete recovery.

Of the total cases, nine were children, he said.

He was speaking to reporters after an Indian pharmaceutical company Hetro Drugs donated 50,000 bottles of paediatric syrup free of cost to the ministry.

"These drugs are worth Rs 2 crore and they are giving it to us free of cost. We have enough medicines to treat infected patients," said Azad, who was flanked by Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi.

India has reported nine human-to-human transmission cases.

He said they are further strengthening their screenings at the international airports. "Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation have been advised to alert our Indian missions abroad and the international airlines to facilitate exit screenings from the respective countries," Azad said.

The Health Minister said he had written twice to the ministry of external affairs to take up the matter with affected countries so that they could screen their outbound travellers heading for India for the flu.

"I got the reply from Krishna (External Affairs Minister SM Krishna). He has said that all missions abroad have taken with the respective countries on this issue," he said.

Azad said they have also been in touch with the Civil Aviation Ministry about distributing forms to people coming from abroad so that they could fill in whether they flu-like symptoms.

"From July 1, all international flights will be making announcements before they land inside the aircraft about whether any passenger has any symptoms of the flu. The announcements will also talk about that it is 100 per cent curable and they should fill the forms if they have any symptom so that they are not passing the infection to their families," said Azad.

He said he has written to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on this matter.

About strengthening the screening procedure at the international airports, Azad said from Tuesday, thermal scanners, that scan the body temperature of a person, would be installed at the Delhi international airport and it would beep if anyone passes it has high fever.

"We have imported four thermal scanners. We are yet to decide where the three would be installed. It could be the Delhi airport," he said.

At the moment all tests regarding the swine flu are done at two laboratories in India, he said. One is in New Delhi, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

"From July 1, 16 more such laboratories that have been upgraded and are spread across the country would be operating, he said.

Noting that there has been no vaccine for the flu, he said India was the first country that approached the World Health Organisation about preparing the vaccine.

The minister said 68 people who tested positive for the swine flu had come from the US.

"We have taken a number of precautions and that's why we were able to contain the infection and not allowed it to spread," he said, referring to the growing number of swine flu cases reported by the US and other western countries.

He said while the US has reported 21,459 cases and 87 deaths, Mexico has registered over 8,000 cases and 116 deaths. In Canada, 6,000 cases and 19 deaths have been reported while in Argentina has reported over 1,300 cases and 21 deaths have occurred.

He said in Chile, over 5,000 cases have been reported and 17 deaths, Australia has over 3,000 cases and three deaths. In Britain, 3,000 cases have occurred while one death was also reported.

In Japan, about 1,000 swine flu cases have been reported, Azad said.