Virus infects 2 more - Nurse & child test positive for H1N1

TT, Siliguri: Two more persons from north Bengal tested positive for swine flu today, taking the total number of patients diagnosed with the disease in the region to 10.

Sources said the two patients who tested positive for H1N1 in the region were a six-year-old girl from Siliguri and a nurse at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital here.

"The minor child has been receiving treatment privately from a paediatrician and has not been admitted anywhere. She appeared stable when her swab sample was collected at NBMCH yesterday. However, since her report has come positive, she will be admitted to the isolation ward heretomorrow morning," a source at NBMCH said.

"Another patient is a nurse at NBMCH and she has been admitted to the isolation ward two days back and her test report, too, has come positive," the source added.

Earlier, eight persons, including two doctors at NBMCH, had been diagnosed with swine flu in north Bengal. One of them, a seven-year-old girl from ward number 40 of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, died on Saturday, the first swine flu death reported in north Bengal.

Biswaranjan Sathpathy, the director of health services (DHS) of the state, said over the phone from Calcutta that 51 samples had been tested today and 12 were positive for H1N1 virus.

"A total of 51 samples were tested at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (in Calcutta) today and 12 of them tested positive for swine flu. Out of the 12, two samples were from north Bengal," Sathpathy said.

He said the total number of people diagnosed with swine flu in the state stood at 323 and 21 of them had died.