By Manish Kumar, Team Mangalorean - Manipal

Mangalore Aug 10: Dr M R Nayak, DIstrict Health and Family Welfare Officer, today said for the first time in Udupi District two confirmed cases of H1N1 and two suspected cases have been reported from Manipal.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the two patients with confirmed H1N1 have been kept in an isolation ward.

They have been identifed as Balsubramaiam (20), a first semister student of MIT here who had just toured London and the other, Tarun (24), a Bangalore-based employee at MIT canteen here. The other suspected victims are also from MIT and their reports were awaited.

Prof H S Ballal Pro-Chancellor of Manipal Univeristy and Dr. Raghuraman Medical Superintendent of the Hospital said as the number of suspected cases of H1N1 was on the rise, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal has geared up to handle the situation with its highly qualified health care professionals in the field of medicine.

Earlier the Virology Laboratory of Manipal University was notified as an influenza H1N1 testing laboratory by the Directorate General of Health services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. "Now we got permission from health department to start treating pandemic H1N1. Few days ago we were selected as the few centers in India who can test the swine flu patients." Said Dr. Ballal, Pro Chancellor, Manipal University in a press conference on Swine flu.

They said that with a large students community here, including foreigners, a special clinic for screening students, faculty and staff has been set up and appropriate steps have been initiated to screen all the suspects. Prof Ballal said a core team of doctors from Medicine, community medicine and Pediatrics Departments has been formed to screen the suspected victims, besides a dedicated ambulance was being made available to transport students and samples to the hospital.

Manipal is a place where there is large number of foreign and NRI students studying. There are students from 54 different countries so it is highly vulnerable to Swine flu.

KMC, Manipal has made many measures to test H1N1 and to treat it. They have got the Tamiflu tablets from government which they can distribute to the confirmed cases of H1N1. These tablets are given only to authorized centers to avoid black marketing of this drug. In addition to this if this drug is being taken as precautionary measure by swine flu suspects it may develop resistance towards the virus. Even samples from other collection centers will be submitted to the Manipal H1N1 testing laboratory.

A special clinic for screening students, faculty and staff has been set up and appropriate steps have been initiated to screen all the suspects. The clinic has been set up on the first floor of Annapurna Mess, next to 9th block of MIT campus.

A core team of doctors from Medicine, community medicine and pediatrics departments has been formed to screen the suspects. Dedicated ambulance is also available to transport students and specimens with the cases.

A 20-bedded isolation ward has been created in Athreya ward in the hospital for admitting and quarantining the confirmed cases. The Ministry of Health, Govt.of India protocol is being followed in dealing with the cases. Even the special masks (N95 masks) are available for patients and suspects.

As a precautionary measure, all the Students of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) at Surathkal were provided with masks.

Till yesterday, a total of 20 suspected Swine Flu cases have been reported in Daxina Kannada District of which six had been confirmed positive while five have been found negetive and reports of the remaining awaited.

H1N1 five more suspects in Mangalore

MANGALORE: The screening centre at Bajpe Airport today recorded five more suspected cases of H1N1 (swine flu). These students who had come into city from foreign countries were screened for the flu and they had certain symptoms of the flu.

They have been sent to isolation wards in KMC Attavar hospital, Fr. Mullers hospital and Government Wenlock hospital. In the meanwhile the first two students who had tested positive have been discharged from the hospital after successfully getting rid of the infection. They were treated with Tamiflu medication according to the DHO Dr. Jagannath.

17 H1N1 cases found in K'taka

While claiming that there was no need to panic over the prevalence of H1N1 in Karnataka, State Health Commissioner Srinivasachari however said about 17 cases of swine flu were found in community other than passengers arriving from abroad.

Addressing a press conference after attending a high-level review meeting on the prevalence of swine flu, he said the 17 persons found positive for H1N1 virus were among the 65 admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases in the city.

Asserting that no deaths were reported from the state due to H1N1 virus, Mr Srinivasachari said the government had identified about 25 private hospitals in the state, including four in Mangalore and 21 in the city to carry out tests apart from government hospitals. The state had received about one lakh Tamiflu tablets sent by the Union government, he informed.

The health officials were also providing necessary training to the staff of private hospitals which were identified for treating the patients in dealing with swine flu cases, he said.

So far, about 3.22 lakh passengers who arrived from abroad were screened with 81 persons testing positive for H1N1. However, 53 of them were treated and discharged after ensuring that they were free from the virus, he added.