Lakhs could be infected: NIV director

National Institute of Virology director Dr A C Mishra said by now lakhs of people may have been H1N1 infected,though asymptomatic.

National Institute of Virology director Dr A C Mishra said by now lakhs of people may have been H1N1 infected,though asymptomatic. According to him,if there were 10 cases in a day then in all likelihood there were 1,000 that went unnoticed.

But we do not believe Pune is the epicentre,Mishra said.

With the death toll reaching 35 in Pune district,the NIV is ready to set up one of its kind bio-safety laboratory-4 (BSL-4) to store the viruses; it has started serological studies and wants to find out the effectiveness of Tamiflu,use of face-masks and transmission of this flu.

Mishra was speaking at a function where Bajaj Allianz offered free life insurance cover for one year to 905 healthcare workers,including doctors,nurses and others,at the NIV,Sassoon Hospital and Naidu Hospital. The total insurance cover is for Rs 18.37 crore. The policy bonds were handed over by Kamesh Goyal,country manager Allianz and CEO Bajaj Allianz to Mishra,Dr Arun Jamkar,Dean,Sassoon Hospital and Dr Sudhir Patsute,acting chief of Naidu Hospital.

In the last few months NIV must have tested over 10,000 samples and now the process is under way to isolate and characterise the virus from each sample. Our work has just begun, said Mishra.

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