Poor Contact Tracing, Cool Climate To Blame

A TEAM headed by the chief of National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Dr Shiv Lal, has arrived in Mumbai to help the state government strategize to curb the spread of the deadly H1N1 virus which has already claimed 13 lives in the state, the largest number of deaths in any state of the country.

The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) today initiated a process of developing low- cost indigenous testing kits for swine flu.

Top scientists and senior government officials met here to discuss steps to develop the low-cost kits, officials said.

The hill state has been, so far, free from the H1N1 virus, though there were two cases of suspected contact with infected persons which only caused a false alarm.

India is yet to have an intelligence agency for diseases, despite facing epidemics every year
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi August 2, 2009, 0:45 IST

A public health ministry acts as an intelligence agency for diseases. However, India is yet to have such a body, despite facing epidemics every year.

July 29: The Institute of Preventive Medicine in the state will begin proficiency tests for swine flu next week.
IPM has already tested six samples from those suspected with swine flu and the results have been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases at New Delhi for evaluation.

AHMEDABAD : Two more suspected cases of swine flu tested positive for H1N1 in Ahmedabad taking the total number of positive cases in city to four.

With the detection of swine flu cases in neighbouring Bangladesh, Tripura has formed Rapid Response Teams (RRT) in all districts and prepared a clinical protocol as a precautionary measure.

Principal Secretary Health Y P Singh told reporters that isolation wards have been set up in district hospitals and sufficient n-95 masks were being kept ready for health workers.

Swine Flu Primer
What is H1N1? It's a virus which has gene segments from the swine, avian and human flu virus. Scientists have christened it influenza-a (h1n1) virus, commonly known as swine flu.

What's A Pandemic? An epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through human populations across a large region. On June 11, the who declared h1n1 a pandemic.

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