Measures intensified at Guj's ports to contain H1N1 flu

In the wake of H1N1 swine flu scare, screening of passengers arriving from outside India has been intensified at all ports and international airports in the state, officials said today.     

However, the authorities have not found any suspected case so far.The Gujarat Maritime Board has asked all the ports, government and private, to check all persons coming from outside the country.     

"We had asked authorities of all the port in the state to setup medical check-up centers and examine all those coming from outside India," Navigation officer, Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), Capt Y P Devalkar told PTI.     

"All the ports have set up medical units on location and have been checking all ship personnel coming from outside the country," Devalkar said.Kandla Port Trust (KPT) CEO, P D Vaghela, said that they have set up health check-up mechanism as per guidelines of the Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare.   

Meanwhile at the Sardar Patel International airport here, the AAI (Airport Authority of India) has deployed five teams of medical professionals to check the passengers coming from the Swine flu affected countries.     

"There are five teams attached to immigration department at the airport, who closely examine passengers coming from outside India," Airport Director B P Bhagat said.     

"We are working in coordination with the state health department and checking all the passengers. The passengers may not come directly from an affected country, but it is possible that they might have visited that country couple of weeks ago. Therefore we need to examine them also," Bhagat said.     

He said that for convenience they have attached the medical team with the immigration department so that all passengers can be screened.Swine influenza is known to be caused by influenza A subtypes H1N1,[4] H1N2,[4] H3N1,[5] H3N2,[4] and H2N3.     

Its symptoms include fever, disorientation, stiffness of the joints, vomiting and loss of consciousness leading to death. "We have set up a team comprising a public health officer from the Central government and the KPT chief medical officer (CMO), who have been doing regular check ups of all the crew accompanying the ship to the port," Vaghela told PTI. 

"Every thing has been done as per guidelines issued by the Central Health Ministry. So far no suspected case of Swine flu has bee found," he said.