Seven fresh swine flu cases found in India, total 96 (Second Lead)

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, June 28 (IANS) India Sunday reported seven fresh cases of swine flu, taking to 96 the total number of people infected with the pandemic virus, according to health officials.

Among the seven were three children tested positive for the flu Sunday. One case each was reported from Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata, and Mumbai, health ministry said in Delhi.

In Kerala, three people, including a mother and her son, have tested positive, the state's Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said Sunday. These were the first swine flu cases in the state.

Health officials in Delhi said about 680 people have been tested so far, of which 96 were positive for the Influenza A(H1N1).

Of the 96 tested positive, 61 have been discharged from hospitals. "Rest of them remain admitted to the identified health facility," an official statement in Delhi said.

In Hyderabad, a 10-year-old boy was tested with the flu. The boy had travelled from the US to Hyderabad via Frankfurt and Mumbai. He reached Hyderabad June 25.

As he showed flu-like symptoms, his family took him to an identified health facility June 26.

In Gurgaon, a 12-year-old girl tested positive Sunday. Officials said the girl got the virus after she came in contact with a person who had earlier been found infected with the swine flu.

On Sunday, West Bengal reported its second confirmed case of the swine flu with a five-year-old girl testing positive for the virus.

The girl, a resident of Dhuliajan in Assam, is being treated at the state-run Infectious Diseases Hospital, said state health department official Tapas Sen.

The girl, with her parents, arrived at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport from Bangkok early Friday with symptoms of the swine flu and was sent to the hospital.

The father of the girl has tested negative, while the mother's test report is awaited.

The three members of the family have been kept quarantined in a special ward in the hospital, where another seven-year-old girl - the first confirmed swine flu patient in the state - is also being treated.

In Mumbai, a 45-year-old woman, whose 15-year-old daughter had been detected with the flu June 26, also tested positive for the virus, officials said here.

The mother and daughter had travelled from the US to Delhi June 22, and reached Mumbai by train the next day.

While the girl complained of fever, cough and running nose and was admitted to an identified health facility at Mumbai June 25, her mother was found to be suffering from the symptoms the next day.

"Their contacts are being identified," the officials added.

The Kerala mother-son duo, who tested positive for the influenza A(H1N1), arrived at the Kochi airport from London while a woman had arrived from the Middle-East at the Karipur airport in Kozhikode.

"Their reports have come. These are the first cases of the swine flu in Kerala. But there is nothing to worry because there are treatment protocols for the virus," Health Minister Sreemathi told IANS.

Out of the nearly 680 people tested for the virus so far, at least 191 were identified through entry screening at the 22 international airports across the country, while 27 were detected through contact tracing and the rest had self-reported.

A total of 2.5 million passengers have been screened so far since the outbreak, the officials added. India reported its first swine flu case May 16.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 59,814 confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection from 112 countries have been reported till June 26. There have been 263 deaths globally mostly from Mexico and the US.

Last updated on Jun 28^th, 2009 at 20:49 pm IST--IANS