Bihar Minister tsts positive for swine flu

Bihar cabinet minister (Art, culture and youth affairs) Renu Devi has tested positive for Swine Flu. She contracted the H1N1 infection in New Delhi during her recent sojourn there.

Confirming it, director-in-chief, health services, Dr Shatrughan Prasad Singh said that the minister was already receiving treatment and recovering fast. She had been quarantined in her residence and her family members and staff, who were in contact with her, had been given antidotes, he added. Singh said that doctors of the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) were keeping a close watch on her health and reporting to the Rapid Response

Team, set up by the health department to check the spread of the highly infectious disease.

Ms Devi is the seventh H1N1 case in the State including an IAS officer, who was the first patient from Bihar to have tested positive for the infection.

Luckily, all six previous cases had a speedy recovery and they resumed their normal activities within a week.

Of seven cases, swab samples of two patients had been examined in the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, while five samples were tested in the local Rajendra Memorial Research Institute (RMRI).

Singh said that in comparison to many other states, Bihar was virtually a Swine Flu free State. “ But we are prepared to take on the infection, if at all it strikes the State,” he claimed. “ We have created special beds for possible cases of H1N1 in each district hospital and stocked ample quantity of antidotes,” he added.