Three diagnosed with swine flu in Visakhapatnam district
VISAKHAPATNAM: Three people have been diagnosed with swine flu at the Virology lab of King George Hospital in the last one week in Visakhapatnam district. Among the three, one is an IPS officer, who was admitted to a private hospital a week ago and discharged recently. According to KGH sources, another person is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital and a 15-year-old girl is getting treatment at the Chest Hospital here.
On Monday, district collector Pravin Kumar held a meeting with district medical and health officials to check the district’s preparedness to tackle the disease. H1N1 cases have been reported in the states such as, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka - Bengaluru city. The virus was prevalent in the community, however, sources said that the officials were yet to detect it.
According to the health officials, the girl suffering from fever was first taken for a dengue test in the Virology department of the KGH, but was detected with swine flu. She was shifted to the Chest Hospital, Chinna Waltair here. “Precautionary medicines are being given to her family members and we are preparing to conduct awareness campaigns,” said district medical and health officials.
In all, 12 screening centres are set up and nodal officers have been deputed to the hospitals. The collector asked the medical officials to have sufficient stock of medicines. Special isolation wards are to be set up at the KGH, Chest, NTR Hospital, Narsipatnam Area Hospital and Paderu CHC. The collector said that depending on the need, any patient reported to be swine flu positive should be referred to the Chest Hospital, which has more ventilators.