India issues travel advisory for visit to Swine Flu affected nations
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, April 28, IRNA -- Indian government issued an advisory for those visiting the Swine Flu affected nations and putting in place a screening mechanism for passengers coming from these nations.
The travel advisory was issued for Mexico, the US, the UK, France, Canada and New Zealand, after the meeting, the Union Health Ministry held to discuss measures to prevent the flu, which spreads among humans through contact with infected pigs, from reaching the country.
All passengers coming from these countries would be screened and those who have reached here till 10 days back would be tracked down and asked to report to the nearest medical center, Director General Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Dr V N Katoch said at a press conference in New Delhi.
The Government is also instituting surveillance of ports and international airports along with monitoring through Integrated Disease Surveillance units in the states, he said.
The country already has a stockpile of the effective drug Tamiflu which was used during the bird flu epidemic.
"We have also asked for an additional one million Tamiflu to be procured," he said.
"As of now we are concentrating on prevention of the infection spreading from person to person as in India there is no scenario of the diseases spreading from animals till now," Director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) Shivlal said.
At least 100 people are now suspected to have died of the disease in Mexico, with the number of suspected infections rising to 1,614.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the UN's health agency, has said the swine flu virus could be capable of mutating into a more dangerous strain. But officials say they need more information on the virus before deciding whether to raise the global pandemic alert phase.
Swine influenza is known to be caused by influenza A subtypes H1N1,[4] H1N2,[4] H3N1,[5] H3N2,[4] and H2N3.
It infects people every year and is found typically in those who have been in contact with pigs, although there have been cases of person-to-person transmission.
Its symptoms include fever, disorientation, stiffness of the joints, vomiting and loss of consciousness leading to death.
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