Swine Flu Panic Attack Now Reaches India

After few months the first outbreak of swine flu, India is discovering how deadly this virus can be. The country's first swine flu death, that of a 14-year old schoolgirl on August 3, followed by seven more patients succumbing to the disease in the span of a week, has set off a panic attack that is spreading faster than the virus itself.

India has reported a total of 959 cases of swine flu and eight deaths. According to the latest bulletin from the ministry of health and family welfare, 4,513 people have been tested so far.

Swine flu is already a global pandemic, with more than 160,000 cases and 1,154 deaths recorded worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, swine flu hit India later than many countries, which are already contending with the uncheckable spread of the disease.

Because swine flu is a new virus, no one in the world had immunity to it when it came on the scene earlier this year, so it is spreading quickly. Fortunately it has proved a relatively mild flu for most people.

Pune, in Western India, with a population of nearly 4 million, has become the epicenter of the disease for India. Five of the eight victims, including a doctor and a chemist, were residents of this city. A federal government team is stationed in Pune, East of Mumbai, to monitor the situation. In a bid to contain the spread of swine flu, the government yesterday shut down Pune’s schools and colleges for a week, and closed malls and cinema multiplexes for three days.

Mumbai, India’s financial capital, which is located 100 miles from Pune, have begun to close down too after the city reported its first swine flu death on the weekend. Both cities are located in the state of Maharashtra, which given its location on the western coast, is a major entry point for foreign travelers who are the main carriers of the disease so far.

The Indian government has installed compulsory health screening facilities for passengers from flu-affected countries at 22 international airports, according to a recent update by the ministry of health and family welfare. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad assured worried citizens that India has plenty of Tamiflu, the drug used to treat swine flu. It has not yet been put on open sale in India.

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