Pune: One more person has tested positive for swine flu in Pune as a sense of panic continues in the city. There have been eight new confirmed cases of H1N1 in Pune in the last three days.
Four students in the school of Reeda Sheikh, India's first swine flu victim, are the latest to have been infected.
Residents in Pune are queuing up in droves to get themselves tested for the H1N1 virus. Young and old are wearing protective green masks and have been waiting in long queues outside the two designated government hospitals in Pune where samples are being collected.
There were long queues outside Pune's Naidu Hospital but minus Wednesday's chaos. The number of those coming here since Monday is well over the 2,000 mark.
Five more doctors have been added, easing the waiting period, which at the beginning of the day was nearly two hours.
Causing two fever-stricken men to collapse when examined though they showed no signs of the flu.
Meanwhile, the persistent complaint continued.
"What is the point of coming here when they are not checking? I had come with my son yesterday and all they did was just ask a few questions and told me to go to a physician," said a Pune resident.
"We are ready to pay, the government should allow private hospitals to conduct these tests and people will pay for their safety," said another Pune resident.
Everyone who walks in the hospital wants to be tested.
The tension was palpable as people with even a mild coulgh or cold were at the hospital to make sure that their ailment was not swine flu and when private practitioners too started referring all such cases to Naidu Hopital, the government had to intervene and say in no uncertain terms stop.
Doctors say the only people who need to be tested are:
- Those with acute respiratory illnesses
- Those who live in an area where there are one or more confirmed cases
- Those who have had about seven days of close contact with a person who has tested positive for swine flu
- Or those who have travelled to an area with one or more confirmed H1N1 cases within 7 days of their travel
- Also doctors say the test has to be conducted at the right time
- If tested during the virus' incubation period, the result could a false negative
Starting Friday though, anxious Punekars will have more options to ease their worry.
"We are starting 15 centres across the city for the people to get themselves checked. Only those who shows signs of H1N1 should be sent to Naidu or Aundh Hospital with a proper referral letter," said R R Pardesi, Head, PMC Health Department.
The Pune Medical College has warned private doctors that they may lose their registration if they fail to attend to their patients instead pass them onto the government. A warning they hope will ease the flow of panic-stricken patients and go towards calming nerves.