Swine flu in Nepal puts North Bengal at risk

SILIGURI: Some swine flu influenza (H1N1)-infected patients have been detected in Nepal. This is increasing the risk of North Bengal, Bihar and eastern UP, areas separated from Nepal by an open international border.

According to officials of Nepal National Centre for Health Education and Information, swine flu was detected in two more children on Thursday ��� one 17 months old and the other five years old. With this, incidents of swine flu in the Himalayan country has gone up to five.

The 17-month infant had come to Nepal on the same flight with the three people in whom he flu was detected earlier. The five-year-old child is a relative of that family.

The authorities have confirmed that one of the infected persons has already come in contact with over hundred persons thereby spreading the risk of virus infection.

Through the Indo-Nepal border gates at Dhulabari, adjacent Kakarvita and Pasupati in Darjeeling district, around 10,000 people cross in both directions. They play an important role in Indo-Nepal bilateral trade. But the overall situation is a potential threat for us on Indian land, felt several doctors as well as health department officials.

"Though an infected patient can be easily identified and quarantined at airports, it is difficult to find and check them in open borders, said senior officials in Sashastra Seema Bal (SSP). It guards the Indo-Nepal border that is not fenced as per the Indo-Nepal friendship treaty.

The situation has an opposite side too. "Too much restriction may severely jeopardise day-to-day Indo-Nepal business and trade," said PB Giri, a senior trader from Dhulabari, one of the five main international trade centres of Nepal.