The Hindu : Front Page : Family from U.S. under watch for A(H1N1) flu

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Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
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Family from U.S. under watch for A(H1N1) flu

Special Correspondent

— File photo

On alert: The Communicable Diseases Hospital at Tondiarpet, where the child was taken for tests before being sent home.

CHENNAI: A five-year-old and four members of her family were put on domiciliary quarantine at their home after she complained on arrival here of symptoms resembling those of the A(H1N1) flu.

The family flew in here from Richmond, U.S., late on Friday by Lufthansa. Based on an entry in the self-declaration form submitted on board by the family members, health authorities at the airport quarantined them for tests. The child was shifted to the Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet around 1.30 a.m. She stayed there waiting for a team from the King Institute, Guindy, to draw samples of blood and take throat swabs. The team took the samples this afternoon and dispatched them to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, and the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

The family members will have to remain quarantined for a week, unless the tests, the results of which will come in 48 hours, show a negative result. For this period they will be under surveillance by health officials of the Chennai Corporation and the Directorate of Public Health, P. Kugananthan, Corporation Health Officer, said.

Equipment awaited

Health authorities are awaiting the installation of thermal body scanners at the airports in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore. Unless these come, they said, there would be no sure-fire method of identifying people with the virus. The Centre on Friday announced its decision to install thermal scanners in international airports in the light of the WHO heightening the warning status for the A(H1N1) virus and declaring it a global pandemic.

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