Swine flu fears hit the tech industry

After Google shut one of its offices in the city to thwart the fears of the virus, a lot of other tech firms followed suit gearing up to keep the premises safe.

Though health experts feel there is no need for panic, many companies and their employees are apprehensive about the virus.

"We work in an air-conditioned atmosphere and we were told that the virus spreads fast in these temperatures. So, many of us did go to the swine flu centre to get the check-up done. But none of our team members were found to be infected," a software programmer working for a multinational said on the condition of anonymity.

Major multinationals in panic
Following on the heels of Google, the entire staff of Wipro India was quarantined after a case of swine flu was detected in the office. Adopting rather extreme measures of precaution, the company asked its employees returning back to India from oversea projects, to take paid leave of two days.

“For anyone who is going on overseas assignments, they should report to office only after completion of 48 hours. The employees who returned from Sweden, were asked to do the same since the flu symptoms develop within 48 hours,” a senior staffer of Wipro said.

MindTree was another company in Hyderabad to have been affected, after one of its employees tested positive. This forced all its employees to wear masks in the office.

MindTree did not to suspend operations, but quarantined the affected employee. However, the company has taken several steps with the help of medical authorities to arrest the spread of the disease among its workforce.

"During the last 3 days, doctors have conducted awareness workshops for MindTree Minds in the Hyderabad office. So far, no new cases have been detected. MindTree continues to monitor the situation closely," the company said in a statement.

Panic triggered by Google shut down
Google’s decision to shut down its office has triggered panic among multinationals and software majors like TCS, Infosys, Mahindra, Satyam and Neudesic.

The companies, as a preventive measure to halt the spread of the virus on their campus are asking their staff, who have returned from abroad, to get health certificates from the Chest Hospital much to the annoyance of the medical authorities.

Dr. K Subhakar, who is in charge of the swine flu nodal centre, said, "I have received calls from at least 30 companies asking about the infection."

Subhakar is laying the blame for the chaos in the hospitals solely on Google. People are in such a state of terror that they are rushing to the medical facilities even if hit by a bout of common cough and cold.

"This (Google’s employee) is not the first case where a software engineer has contracted swine flu, so why the sudden panic now?" Subhakar wondered.

Dr. Subhakar believes that most of the techies coming to the hospital do not have swine flu. ‘‘I can tell you from experience that most of the cases we have isolated will turn out to be negative,” he said.

Swine flu update in the country
Fresh confirmed cases were reported from Delhi (7), Jalandhar (4), Cochin (2), Thiruvananthapuram (2), Mumbai (2), Pune (2), Hyderabad (1), Ahmedabad (1) and Bangalore (1).

According to the Union Health Ministry 1,293 persons have been tested of which 251 were found positive for Influenza A (H1N1). Of these infected, 141 have been discharged after treatment. Remaining 110 are admitted to the identified health facilities.