Swine flu: all seven patients passed airport security checks undetected

According to health department officials,all the seven patients contracted the virus at the time of boarding the flight or,at the most,a day earlier. And being in the window period,symptoms were reported only after landing in the country.

Incidentally,all these cases surfaced within three days of reaching the country. The first case that emerged in the state was of a Thai national,who had come as part of a ship crew and reached Kandla via Mumbai.

The Thai national,who was suspected for the flu,approached the health officer of the Kandla Port on July 4. Some of his co-passengers were quarantined following his throat swab samples being tested positive by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Three of the subsequent positive cases were of girl students in the age group 16 to 25 years,who had landed at the Delhi international airport from the US and later on reached Ahmedabad via train.

The seventh positive case was of secondary transmission and the girl was part of a 10-member student group which had retuned to the state after staying in the US for a year.

Health department officials believe that these people remained undetected,as the thermal devices at the airports do not detect persons in the window period.

State Health Secretary Ravi Saxena said: “It is not that the swine flu testing at the airports had any lapses. All the patients developed symptoms within days of reaching here because of being in the window period. They would have contracted the flu at the time of boarding or a day earlier. This is why on the maturity of the window period they show up the symptoms.”