Five of family quarantined, discharged later
POSTED June 14, 2009 - 11:45 | POSTED BY Jyoti Pal
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on June 14, 2009 - 12:31
Quickly moved to hospital
The US-based family landed in India past midnight on Saturday from Richmond via Frankfurt on a Lufthansa flight (LH 758). It was when the family wrote on the voluntary health declaration form that the little girl had fever and ear pain that the health officials sprung into action.
Though all other members were reported to be perfectly healthy, the entire family was taken to the Communicable Diseases Hospital (CDH), Tondiarpet, at 1.30 am.
Director of public health, Dr S Elango said, "On inquiry, they told our doctors that the child was sick for sometime and was on antibiotics. But we could take no chances. We called for an ambulance and shifted all the family members to CDH."
Clean chit
The CDH gave a clean chit to the entire family, as the results of the tests, received by evening showed that neither the girl, nor the other four members of the family were suffering from the H1N1 influenza. As a safety measure, the doctors advised the family a self-quarantine for few days at home.
Giving an account of the family’s stay at the hospital, Dr P Kuganantham, health officer at Chennai Corporation said, "The patient came in with symptoms including sore throat. But the father, who is a doctor, told us that the child had the symptoms for more than 25 days. We observed them for sometime here. After drawing samples, including throat swabs, we sent them to domestic quarantine."
The scare of the flu and the resultant delay because of the quarantine that lasted over 12 hours spoiled the family’s applecart who were scheduled to board the next flight to Coimbatore. The family will now have to wait a wee bit longer to reach their native place Telugupalayam.
