A day after two city residents were admitted to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH) Sector 16 here with symptoms of avian influenza, a two-year old boy also showed signs of being infected with the virus and is kept under observation at GMSH-16.
Aarav Garg, a resident of Sector 35, is the third suspected patient of bird flu from Chandigarh. He has been kept in an isolation ward. Total five suspected cases of bird flu have been reported from Chandigarh and Panchkula since Saturday.
Dr Vinod Kumar Gagneja, Director Health Services (DHS) of Chandigarh, said, “Aarav Garg was admitted to the isolated ward of the GMSH-16 and is being given Tamiflu. His nasal swabs have been sent to the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, for analysis. We will get the report within a few days.”
Dr Gagneja said that the UT Health Department is constantly monitoring the condition of patients and prepared to cure them if the symptoms aggravate or the infection is confirmed.
Meanwhile, the reports regarding two suspected patients of bird flu, a 20 years old woman from Sector 10 and a 30 years old man from Nayagaon, have been found negative.
“The reports concerning the samples of two suspected cases that had been sent to the NCDC, New Delhi, have been found negative. We may discharge the patients today. They were not found to be suffering from bird flu and were kept at an isolation ward for observation.” he added.
The Health Department also conducted door-to-door survey at several parts of the city, to assess the possibility of transmission of H5N1 virus in the local residents. During the survey, 20 persons were found suffering with fever and their samples have been sent for test, said Dr Gagneja. “Apart from the door-to-door survey, we have also checked around 250 school children, who had visited Sukhna lake few days before the confirmation of bird flu,” he said.
A total of eight persons, all employed near the Sukhna lake, visited the isolated ward of GMSH-16 for check-up, as they had been in contact with the birds at lake. However after finding no symptoms of bird flu, they were not admitted, said sources in the GMSH-16.