Health officials issued a statewide alert over swine flu on Sunday evening with the wake of the death of a 70-year-old farmer near Coimbatore due to the suspected H1N1 virus and four patients having tested positive for the killer virus in Chennai in only a few days, which took the number of cases to 11 in the state.
Health department authorities alerted all deputy directors across the state to escalate surveillance at government hospitals. They also plan to request private hospitals to provide information about the suspected cases of swine flu.
“So far, we have identified 11 cases from January, but over the past few days the number of confirmed cases have increased slightly, which is uncommon in this season. However, we have adequate medicine stock,” Porkai Pandian, director of public health told DC on Sunday. “This spurt could have been triggered because of migration as there was a swine flu outbreak recently in Mumbai and Pune,” said Pandian.
The 42 deputy directors in the state have been asked to keep in touch with the health officials concerned and collect samples from all suspected cases.
Reports of two patients from Crooks Road, who had been tested positive, going missing from their beds at Government Stanley Medical college hospital have added to the panic and health officials have been trying hard to trace them.
Pandian, however, denied reports of patients going missing and said officials of Kings Institute confirmed the contagion in samples.
“They were unaware that they were tested positive,” he said.
The state health department has advised people with symptoms of cold, cough and fever to consult doctors.