The over-a-month-long exercise of keeping track of H1N1 patients,including casualties and collation of data for daily updates,appears to have started to tell on the district authorities. TillWednesday,both state and local health authorities were clueless about 17-year-old girl Sreeja Sreedharan from Lonavla who had tested H1N1 positive and was admitted at KEM Hospitals ICU on September 4. Dr Uddhavrao Gawhande,deputy director for Pune region,admitted at a press conference that he had learnt about the case only today,six days after she had tested positive. He admitted that at times there was lack of coordination between civic and state health officials about new cases. Sreejas school,Don Bosco,is residential-cum-day. She had flu-like symptoms on August 23 and was treated by private practitioners in Lonavla before getting referred to Naidu Hospital on September 2. She tested positive the next day. She travelled back to Lonavla but was rushed back to Pune on September 4,complaining of breathlessness. She was admitted to the ICU,Gawhande said. Gawhande did not have answers to queries like why there was a delay in sending a team to track her contacts. We learnt about Sreeja only today. A rapid response team of a physician,a medicine specialist and a medical officer has gone to Lonavala where 750 children were screened on Wednesday. A total of 25 with flu-like symptoms were given Tamiflu and their contacts are being tracked,Gawhande said. Clearly,little is left of the initial scare that had the health authorities on their toes right through August. The twin task of tracing contacts and keeping tabs on all 230 screening centres may have led to strained nerves. Pune Municipal Corporation officials admitted that some lapses are bound to occur. However,Dr R R Pardeshi,chief medical officer,and Dr D D Chandakkar,assistant health officer,maintained that detailed records were being maintained on all cases. A daily record of suspected and positive cases is being maintained and health officials are also charting plans to tackle a resurgence. The new policy also entails home quarantine and Tamiflu to symptomatic cases. We are maintaining records and documenting new cases. In certain cases where there is excess throat congestion,swabs are taken. At present the guidelines are that swabs are taken of only category-A patients who are hospitalised. There may be a few lapses but overall the situation is under control and contacts are being traced of every positive case, said Pardeshi. H1N1 UPDATE Baby dies: Ten-month-old Rohit Kusalkar has died of swine flu-like symptoms; test reports are not yet in. The baby from Sinhagad Road had fever for six days,was referred to Sassoon General Hospital on Tuesday night and died at 5 am on Wednesday,joint director of health services Dr Ashok Mehta said. Dead girl negative: Samples from a 13-year-old girl of Guru Nanak School,Prateeksha More,who died on Tuesday,have tested negative for H1N1. Taking count: Three persons were confirmed positive on Tuesday,taking the total to 934,while 7,764 were screened and 50 admitted to hospital. Two more school students - a 13-year old from Kalewadi and a six-year-old from Junnar - were admitted to Ruby Hall and Sassoon.
