Imphal, July 31 2009:Along with confirmation of the first positive case of Swine flu in Manipur on a 19-year old woman fencing player, who recently returned from Singapore, the State Health Services has taken up necessary steps for screening all the passengers who came along with the player to Imphal in the same Indigo flight from New Delhi. Announcing this during a press conference at his office chamber here this afternoon, Director of Health Services, Dr W Motilal said that although the first positive case of Swine flu has been detected in Manipur, there is no cause for any alarm among the public. The Health Services has stepped up its surveillance and there is enough medicine in stock to control the spread of the disease, Dr Motilal informed, while appealing to the people for feedbacks on the control measures being put in place by the Department. State Nodal Officer on Swine Flu and Additional Director of Public health, Dr Th Bhubonchandra, who was also present during the press conference, informed that the young woman fencing player, who has tested positive for Swine flu had been to Singapore to participate in a sporting event from July 14 to 22 and she returned to Imphal from New Delhi by an Indigo flight the following day. It is said that out of the total 30 players including five from Manipur, five players including two Manipuri players had shown suspected symptoms of Swine flu when they returned from Singapore.

The woman player in question who has tested positive for Swine flu is from Imphal East and she is staying in a quarter.

While returning to New Delhi, she had boarded the flight of Cathay-Pacific Airlines. Dr Bhubonchandra further informed that along with another Microbiologist, he himself had gone to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases on July 26 for testing the samples of the throat swab and nasal swab collected from the woman player and the test result was confirmed positive yesterday. On the night of the same day the samples were collected, the woman player was admitted to JN Hospital and kept in the isolation ward for observation.

When the quarantined period was over, she was discharged from the hospital on July 29. However, on receiving the result of the test, Dr Bhubonchandra said he had gone to the quarter where the player is residing and found that she was not having any health related complaint. Nonetheless, Osel Tamivir have been prescribed for 10 days to all the five members of the family.

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