Three test positive for swine flu in Puducherry

Three suspected cases of swine flu tested positive in the Union Territory of Puducherry today, for the first time since the viral disease broke out in the country over two months ago.

Three of the 21 samples sent for analysis have tested positive, Director of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Dr K S V K Subba Rao, said here.

The three persons who tested positive included a 60-year-old man, Rao said.

The samples were sent for testing at the King Institute in Chennai and the report received today, Medical Superintendent A K Das said.

Das said the 60-year-old man, who hails from Puducherry, had visited France recently. The other two were a 22-year-old girl student, who had come from Pune to see her parents here recently, and a 22-year-old man from Jammu and Kashmir, who had come some days ago.

 

He said samples of seven more patients, six from Puducherry and one from Villupuram, who were quarantined at home, were sent for testing today.

A monitoring committee has been set up and kit awaited from the Centre for testing of the samples at JIPMER itself, Rao said.