Million swine flu cases In US

US health officials estimate that at least one million Americans have been infected with swine flu since the H1N1 virus emerged nearly three months ago.

The number is far higher than cases actually reported to the authorities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said many cases were mild, although 127 people had died.
The CDC based its figures on surveys, rather than laboratory evidence, but the numbers suggest the death rate from swine flu is lower than thought.
"We're saying that there have been at least a million cases of the new H1N1 virus so far this year in the United States," said Anne Schuchat of the CDC.
"Reported cases are really just the tip of the iceberg."
The CDC has based its estimate on mathematical modelling, based on surveys by health officials.
If the figures are correct, it is reassuring news, because it indicates that the fatality rate from swine flu is even lower than thought, says BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh.
However, Dr Schuchat warned that swine flu might exhibit higher infection rates than seasonal flu and could return in a more virulent form in the autumn.
Argentina election
According to the CDC, there have been 27,717 confirmed or probable cases; some 3,000 people have needed hospital treatment and there have been 127 deaths.

Argentina's hospitals are coming under pressure

Swine flu continues to affect mainly people under 50 years of age, with many of those worst affected having underlying health problems such as asthma or diabetes.
The average age of those who died in the US is 37.
Officials from the CDC and the World Health Organization are watching outbreaks in the southern hemisphere, in particular in Argentina, Chile and Australia, to see how the H1N1 virus has been spreading during the winter months and whether it is likely to become more virulent.
Argentina's health ministry has registered 26 deaths attributed to swine flu, and 1,587 cases. Officials are advising people to try to leave space between each other as they line up to vote in legislative elections on Sunday.
Chilean health authorities say there have been 6,211 cases and 12 deaths.
In Australia, there have been five swine-flu related deaths, all of patients with existing medical conditions, and 3,677 cases, according to official figures.
The H1N1 virus first emerged in April in Mexico, which has recorded 116 deaths and 8,279 cases, according to the WHO.
On 11 June, the WHO declared a global flu pandemic, meaning that swine flu virus was spreading in at least two regions of the world.
Officials stressed that this did not mean the virus was causing more severe illness or more deaths.
According to the latest figures from the WHO, there have been 263 deaths and nearly 60,000 cases in some 100 countries and territories.

Suspects collected of swine flu Samples

A government health team collected samples of five persons suspected to be suffering from swine flu. The persons are relatives of one

Ashish Dhani, who tested positive to the pandemic on Monday. Director, health, Dr I S Srivastava said that the samples have been dispatched to National Institute of Communicable Diseases for investigation. The reports are expected in next 4 to 5 days.

Ashish is a native of Snehnagar in Alambagh and studies in Pune. As a part of some academic activity, Ashish had gone to America. Here he stayed for about a fortnight and returned to India. He first went to Mumbai and took a flight to Delhi to reach his native place, Lucknow. Here he stayed with his parents when flu like symptoms

came to light. Local health authorities got him examined but before the tests could confirm something, he went back to Pune. In Pune, he got himself checked thoroughly and the reports tested positive for swine flu.

Wimbledon fears of Swine flu

Some staff at the Wimbledon tennis championships have reported "flu-like" symptoms, but the competition will continue "as normal", organisers said on Monday.
Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which runs the annual Grand Slam in southwest London, sent a message to staff to inform them of the situation.
Club sources told AFP that a handful of ball boys and ball girls were affected, but nobody had been confirmed as having contracted the A(H1N1) virus.
The club takes on approximately 4 600 extra staff to run the grass court championships, including 250 ball boys and girls recruited from local schools.
More than 4 300 swine flu cases have been diagnosed in Britain.
"A small number of our championships' personnel have reported a flu-like illness and have consequently been asked to stay at home," Ritchie said.
"Having consulted closely with the Health Protection Agency, we have been reassured that since the incidence is entirely in line with the wider London community, there is no particular extra risk to all those connected with the event, be they players, media, staff or spectators.
Monitoring situation
"We are able to continue with the championships as normal. We shall of course be monitoring the situation closely," Ritchie added.
Venus Williams, the defending Wimbledon ladies' singles champion, said she was not worried about the situation.
"I just got a letter. I haven't read it. But I guess there's sicknesses all around. Hopefully the players won't get sick," the US tennis champ said.
"Hopefully our immune systems are strong enough. That's what they're there for. We're going to all put ours in use, take vitamin C, keep playing, and call it a day."
The second Briton to die after contracting swine flu succumbed on Saturday, but authorities said the 73-year-old man had "underlying health problems".
Swine flu has infected more than 70 000 people worldwide with 311 deaths since late March, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.

Swine flu in Scotland

The total number of swine flu cases in Scotland has topped the 1,000 mark for the first time.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said a further 196 cases were recorded over the past three days, bringing the total across the country to 1,118.
The overwhelming majority of new cases were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire NHS areas.
Meanwhile, new figures revealed that most of those affected by swine flu in Scotland are under the age of 24.
The statistics from Health Protection Scotland showed 10% of cases were aged four or under, with 32% between 5-14, and a further 21% aged between 15-24.
Only 4% of Scottish swine flu victims are over the age of 55, the figures showed.
'Some reassurance'
On Saturday, A 73-year-old man became the second person in Scotland with swine flu to die.
The pensioner's death followed that of a 38-year-old woman who gave birth prematurely while being treated at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
A young girl suffering from swine flu died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday.
All three victims were said to have had underlying health problems.
Ms Sturgeon stressed: "The medical evidence and patterns seen in the early stages offer some reassurance that in the majority of cases symptoms are mild with recovery for people in otherwise good health generally straightforward.
"While the two deaths to date in Scotland from H1N1 have been regrettable and tragic for the families involved, underlying medical conditions were a factor in both situations."
An elderly man who was suffering from swine flu has died, health officials have confirmed.
The 73-year old was being treated at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley at the time. He died late on Saturday.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said he was suffering from underlying health complications.
The pensioner, from Inverclyde, passed away late on Saturday night. He is the second person in the UK who was suffering from swine flu to die.
The first death, earlier this month, was a 38-year-old woman who gave birth prematurely while being treated at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. She also had underlying health conditions.

Her death was the first connected to swine flu outside the Americas.
The pensioner who died had been in intensive care for 15 days.
Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the patient at this tragic and very sad time. The family have asked for the patient's identity to be kept private.
"Although it is concerning that the patient had swine flu, we are aware that the patient had very serious underlying health issues.
"It's important to remember that the vast majority of those who have H1N1 are suffering from relatively mild symptoms.
A family spokesperson said: "Our beloved relative was private in life and we would ask that his privacy continues to be respected as we try to come to terms with our loss."
Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, said the death was a "tragedy" but also underlined that it was only the second death from swine flu in well over 4,000 cases in the UK.
Flu pandemic
He told the BBC: "It's a tragedy, but it doesn't change our view that this is no more serious than winter flu.
"In fact this is the second case in about four and a half thousand cases that we've seen in the UK and that makes it a lot less severe, much less aggressive than we would normally see with a winter flu virus.
"What happens with winter flu is there is no publicity," he added.
According to the latest available figures, there were more than 4,200 laboratory confirmed cases in the UK.
Of these, 3,364 cases are in England, 922 in Scotland and 24 in Northern Ireland.
Four new cases were confirmed in Wales on Sunday bringing the total to 17.
60,000 cases
It also emerged on Saturday that three people attending the Glastonbury Festival have been diagnosed with suspected swine flu.
Two students and a 10-year-old child from a family of four showed symptoms of the illness when examined by festival medical staff.
The students, from Exeter and Edinburgh universities, and the family were moved off the festival site and into an isolation facility.
They have since returned home.
The H1N1 virus first emerged in April in Mexico, which has recorded 116 deaths and 8,279 cases, according to the World Health Organisation.
On 11 June, the WHO declared a global flu pandemic, meaning that swine flu virus was spreading in at least two regions of the world.
Officials stressed that this did not mean the virus was causing more severe illness or more deaths.
According to the latest figures from the WHO, there have been 263 deaths and nearly 60,000 cases in some 100 countries and territories.

Swine flu scare

When Zil Shah and his friends received the invitation for a six-day programme at NASA, the swine flu outbreak in US didn’t deter them. But, the 15 kids made sure they took necessary precautions. Says Deepak Shah, Zil’s father who accompanied the students, “All of us were made to wear safety masks as soon as we landed at New York airport and we underwent a medical test there.”
NASA too took precautions and maintained a hygienic ambience on its premises. “NASA has air-purifiers installed at their station. Besides, food and water was pure and our living quarters were well-maintained,” says Sonam Shah, 18. When they landed in Ahmedabad, they had to undergo a check-up. Says Abhimanyu Tripathi, 11, “We were made to fill a medical form at the airport. We were checked for common cold and our travel details were looked into.”
Parents, however, are taking no chances. “We have collected blood samples of participants and will be sending them for tests to Mumbai within this week,” says Zil.

Swine flu patient under watch

The seven-year-old girl the first swine patient in Kolkata will remain under treatment at the Beliaghata ID Hospital for at least
two weeks. The medical team at Kolkata airport has, meanwhile, sent details of all 250 of her co-passengers on board the Thai Airways flight she arrived in early on Tuesday to the state government, said an airport medical officer.
Those among the 250 who hail from Bengal will be identified and monitored to see whether they have acquired the H1N1 virus from her. Details of the other passengers will be communicated to their respective state governments by Writers' Buildings.
Yet another passenger was quarantined on Thursday after he landed at the Kolkata airport on board an Air India Express flight. The 50-year-old man from Ghaziabad, UP, arrived after a three-year stint in Bangkok. On being medically examined, he was detected with fever and breathing trouble. The passenger was then sent to Beliaghata ID Hospital where he will be quarantined.
The girl detected with swine flu has congestion in her lungs and severe bodyache, even though her temperature has subsided. According to doctors at the hospital, she should recover in five days but will have to be confined to the isolation ward.
She, along with her brother and parents, was on her way back from Australia via Bangkok when Kolkata airport officials referred her to the hospital.
A day after swab tests at National Institute of Cholera and Communicable Diseases (NICED), Delhi, confirmed that she had the viral disease, ID Hospital authorities issued a warning for the city. "This is a highly contagious disease, so we need to be careful. We have asked her family to be alert. Her mother has been given a preventive medicine, as she is attending to her. In fact, all the passengers of the Thai Airways flight by which the family travelled to Kolkata should be warned," said Goutam Pal, associate professor at the hospital.
Special arrangements have been made at the ward to prevent infection. All employees and doctors attending to her have been given a special protection kit. Disinfectants, gloves, masks and shoe covers are being used. The patient has been prescribed Tamiflu the only recognized drug for H1NI, that causes swine flu.
The girl's family, however, said they were unhappy with the arrangements. Her mother expressed doubts whether she was indeed suffering from swine flu. "Nothing has happened to my daughter. She has been confined to this hospital without any reason. The conditions here are unhygienic. The isolation ward is extremely dirty," she said. The family is based in Jamshedpur.
But the hospital authorities refused to pay any heed to the allegations. "We have no doubt that she has the virus. The NICED report has confirmed H1N1 and we are not going to have any more tests. She will remain here till we are sure that the virus is not going to infect others. Even though for adults, the quarantine period is usually seven days, it is 14 days for children. She is responding to drugs, but we have kept a team of doctors from NRS Medical College ready for an emergency," said Pal.
It was not clear if the girl got infected in Australia, where she had gone with her family on a vacation. "They have said that all four of them had upper respiratory tract infection in Australia, where temperatures hovered around the five-degree mark," Pal said.
On Wednesday, NICED, New Delhi, informed the hospital over phone that the girl had tested positive for swine flu. In accordance with ICMR rules, the test results need to be confirmed by at least two institutes which include NICED, New Delhi and NIV, Pune.

Her father, who left for Jamshedpur with his three-year-old son, has been informed about the report.

Australia warn for high Swine flu risk

Australia on Tuesday warned Aborigines may be at high risk from swine flu and rushed medical supplies to remote indigenous communities, as the country announced its second death linked to the virus.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said high disease rates among Aborigines, who suffer the country's worst poverty and ill health, could make them particularly vulnerable.
"We know many of the chronic diseases that they suffer from are indicators that swine flu may actually hit them harder than some others in the community," she told public radio.
A 26-year-old Aboriginal man with swine flu and other medical problems died in Adelaide on Friday, setting alarm bells ringing about the virus's possible impact on the indigenous community.
On Tuesday, officials said a non-Aboriginal man, 35, who had swine flu and "significant underlying medical problems" had died in Victoria of apparent respiratory failure at the weekend.
Despite the country's second swine flu-related death, Victoria's acting chief health officer Rosemary Lester said the virus, which has infected 2,733 people here, was not considered life-threatening in most cases.
"It is important to remember that in the vast majority of cases, human swine flu is a mild illness which many people recover from without any medical treatment," she said.
However, Health Minister Roxon said Aborigines may be a special case and authorities were working to boost their supplies of anti-viral drugs in the wake of the indigenous man's death.
An emergency medical response team was due to arrive in the dead Aboriginal man's isolated home settlement of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia carrying anti-flu medicine, face masks and cleaning products to contain any infection.
Meanwhile in the Northern Territory, where Aborigines make up almost a third of the population, authorities said swine flu appeared to have gained a foothold in remote indigenous communities.
The number of confirmed cases in the Territory approximately doubled in the past week to 61, with three children hospitalised in Alice Springs.
Territory health minister Kon Vatskalis said the government was closely monitoring the situation in Outback settlements and town camps, the ghettos on the outskirts of urban areas where many Aborigines live.
"Anti-viral medications and personal protective equipment have been distributed to all remote health centres and general practices," he said.
"In remote communities where the infection has arrived or seems imminent, immediate testing and treatment is being offered to those people with influenza symptoms and established risk factors."
Australia's 520,000 Aborigines make up about 2.5 percent of the population, but have a life expectancy 17 years shorter than the national average. They also have higher rates of imprisonment, child mortality and alcoholism.
The rapid spread of the virus in Australia helped persuade the World Health Organization to declare the first global pandemic in 40 years this month.
Australia last week changed its swine flu alert level to "protect," meaning only the most vulnerable receive anti-viral treatments such as Tamiflu while those with mild symptoms must rely on over-the-counter medicines.

Swine flu capture 8 yr boy

A suspected case of Swine flu that was reported here on June 20 has been found to be positive as per the results of throat swab test and culture medicum test carried out at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi. The boy was quarantined and was being treated at the Government Rajaji Hospital here in A1 air-conditioned ward.The family with their eight-year-old son from New Jersey, US, was visiting India. On reaching Mumbai airport it was learnt that the boy had fever and on suspicion he was taken to a nearby private hospital for diagnosis.The family later decided to have further diagnosis at their hometown in Madurai. In Madurai, the boy was taken to a private hospital and was referred to the Government Rajaji Hospital for diagnosis. At Government Rajaji Hospital, the samples of the boy’s blood and urine were collected and sent to NICD for test.S M Shivakumar, Dean (in-charge) of Government Rajaji Hospital, said that the boy was normal without cough and fever. As the results came at night on Wednesday, tamiflu (drug to fight H1N1) was not administered and the medication would be administered during the day on Thursday.Another throat swab test would be taken on the third day after administering tamiflu to the boy.The boy was visiting India to spend time with his grandparents for three weeks and was expected to leave India in two weeks time. Though the results of the tests were out, the official announcement from the Centre might come on Thursday, he said.