H1N1 Influenza: Govt Issues Advisory, Asks to Suspend Tours Overseas
The Union Health Ministry has recommended not journeying oversea given the epidemic outburst of H1N1 influenza called commonly as swine flu. With six more flu cases being recorded across the country on Sunday, the total number of cases has gone up to 23.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that educational institutions should hang up tours and trips to other part of the world till the influenza subsides.
“We are requesting people to temporarily suspend foreign visits till the virus is controlled globally,” Azad said, while simultaneously assuring that there is no reason to panic.
“Medicines are freely available. Swine flu is 100 per cent curable. Out of 23 cases, 11 have already been treated and discharged. So keeping in view the size and population of the country, there is nothing to worry about,” Azad said.
On Sunday, three people, a 29-year-old woman and her three-year-old child from Bangalore and a teenager from Jalandhar, tested positive for H1N1 virus.
The mother-child duo, returned from New Jersey on June 12, was quarantined at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases in Bangalore after they tested positive for swine flu.
While in Jalandhar, a student of Guru Amar Dass Public School tested positive for swine flu and was then admitted to a hospital in New Delhi. The student had returned from Nasa on June 12.
Meanwhile, the joint monitoring committee comprising of the Health department authorities is to take stock of the situation. It finished its second round of meetings on Sunday. It included officials from the Indian Council of Medical Research, the World health organisation, Ministry of Animal Husbandry, the Ministry of Environment and the National Disaster Management Authority.
