India Pune H1N1: 2 girls from Reeda's school test positive

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H1N1: 2 girls from Reeda's school test positive

Press Trust of India, Wednesday August 5, 2009, Pune



Two girl students of a school from where the country's first swine flu death was recorded tested positive for the deadly virus on Wednesday night, as hundreds of anxious people including children thronged a referral hospital to take tests leading to panic and chaos.

A Class Ten student from St Annes school tested positive for the deadly H1N1 virus as per the information provided by her father, according to Nirmala Chandy, Vice Principal of the school. She was identified as Netra Bafna.

Fourteen-year-old Reeda Sheikh, a Class 9 student, succumbed to the disease on Monday triggering a wave of panic in the city.

Reeda, who had flu symptoms on July 21, attended school briefly after taking treatment from a general practitioner before she was admitted again on July 27 at Jehangir hospital.

Civic Medical Officer R R Pardeshi said a fourth-standard girl from the same school was also admitted to the Naidu civic hospital, a referral centre fror Swinfe Flu, in the morning on Wednesday with symptoms of the disease.

Throat swabs of the girl were sent to Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) which tested positive for the virus, he said.

Chandy said the school will be closed for eight days from Thursday.

Doctors and authorities tried to calm frantic parents with children wearing face masks for protection rushing to Naidu hospital to take H1N1 influenza tests. Police had to be called in to control the crowd.

There were complaints galore by people referred to the Naidu hospital for the tests that they were not being attended properly but hospital authorities sought to downplay it saying the "whole burden" was on them and that people even without any symptoms were being referred.


http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/h1n1_2_girls_from_reedas_school_test_positive.php

 

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Re: India Pune H1N1: 2 girls from Reeda's school test positive

Three St Anne's students, six others test positive for H1N1 in Pune
Pune, PTI:

Nine more persons, including three girl students of St Anne,s school which recorded the first fatality of swine flu here, have tested positive for the virus even as names of two schools were added to the list of affected educational establishments, health officials said on Thursday.


The three schoolmates of the deceased Reeda Shaikh, the class nine student of St Anne's who died of the infection on August 3, belong to different classes, leading to concern that the virus may have spread in the school.

Two more schools--- St Helena and Loyola --- have reported one each positive case of the virus, according to Dr Ravindra Katti, state health department official.

The number of total positive H1N1 infections registered in the city now stands at 118. This represents the largest chunk of the 172 swine flu infections in the state, which has promulgated Epidemic Diseases Act in the Western Maharashtra districts of Pune and Satara.

Rattled by the death of the 14-year-old student due to swine flu, people continued to rush to civic Naidu hospital to get tested for the virus.

Health authorities have issued instructions to private clinics not to refer all cases of cough and cold to Naidu.


http://www.deccanherald.com/content/18148/nine-more-test-positive-h1n1.html