By IANS, [RxPG]
Hyderabad, June 7 - With this southern Indian city reporting the highest number of influenza A - cases in the country, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases -, New Delhi, has decided to set up a unit here to help screen the suspected cases and diagnose them.
This was announced Sunday by state Health Minister Sudarshan Reddy after holding talks with a six-member team from NICD, which is here to help the authorities in tackling the situation.
A day after three swine flu cases were confirmed, the team of experts visited Andhra Pradesh Chest Hospital, the nodal centre to deal with flu cases, and studied the facilities to treat the patients.
Five people, including a four-and-half year old child, infected with the swine flu are being treated at the hospitals.
The team will also help the authorities in creating two more such centres in the city to deal with the increasing number of cases.
The experts from NICD arrived here after the authorities detected the country's first indigenous case of swine flu. A 24-year-old youth contracted the virus from his brother, a software professional, who arrived here from the US May 31.
A woman and her four-and-half year old daughter who travelled by the same flight also were found to be affected by the virus.
The health minister, however, said the local people faced no threat of swine flu outbreak. He said six cases of swine flu were so far detected and all except one had returned from abroad.
The minister said all international air passengers were being screened for the virus on their arrival at the airport. He also appealed to people to report to authorities about any person who returned from abroad and was found with visible symptoms of swine flu.
Officials said anyone found resisting or avoiding screening would be arrested.
The city has reported six out of eight swine flu cases in the country.
Two cases were reported from Coimbatore.
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