Swine Flu: West Bengal govt to issue advisory to educational institutes

KOLKATA: After alerting the IT sector, the West Bengal government is about to issue a special advisory to all educational institutes in the state to build awareness and frame special guidelines to prepare them to tackle a possible outbreak of swine flu among students. The move has been triggered by the surge in the number of suspected swine flu cases among students across India and after a class II girl in the city tested positive.

Talking to ET, Dr Tapas Kumar Sen, the state health officer in-charge of swine flu monitoring cell, said: "We will issue a circular, based on the guidelines drawn by the Centre, which will be sent to all schools, colleges, universities and private education institutes in the state. The idea is to prepare the institutes to prevent any swine flu outbreak."

The state health department is also closely monitoring the condition of the class II girl, who had supposedly
never travelled abroad or come into contact with anyone who has tested H1N1 positive. "We are keeping a vigil on the girl���s family, people she recently came in contact with and the entire locality where she stays. However, it seems not to be an indigenous case of infection since other people in the locality has till now not shown any symptoms of swine flu," said Dr Sen.

On Saturday, the state issued a revised guideline to ensure preparedness for a possible H1N1 pandemic in the state. As part of this, all district and sub-district hospitals, including health centers, will henceforth screen suspected patients. Moreover, all suspected cases with mild symptoms, after collection of throat swab for testing, will now be advised for home quarantine.

The government has also decided that people, who have come in close contact with a confirmed case, will be given medicines to prevent H1N1 infection. Similarly, all healthcare personnel coming into contact with suspected or confirmed swine flu patients will be required to take special preventive measures.

As on Saturday, nine patients have been confirmed to suffer from swine flu in the state. At present, three swine flu patients are undergoing treatment at the ID Hospital in Kolkata and eight more are under observation. Amongst the suspected cases, there are two doctors (one from the ID Hospital itself and the other was involved in the screening clinic at the city airport) and a family of four who arrived from Singapore on Saturday morning. Another ID Hospital doctor, who was admitted on Friday, has been discharged after being tested negative.