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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation appealed to school authorities that if they find any suspected case of H1N1 or any similar symptoms they must inform the parents who in turn must get their children tested for Swine flu if necessary. "We have asked that teachers and staff members must report Swine flu related cases or any similar symptoms like cold, cough, fever and running nose to their parents and they get their children tested for it and must take rest for seven to 10 days," Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said.
According to civic officials, RIMS International in Andheri, J B Vacha School in Dadar and Dhirubhai Ambani School in Bandra Kurla complex have been closed down for a week. Schools have been closed as a precautionery measure to check the spread of the air-borne H1N1 virus, sources said. Ten school children have tested positive for H1N1 of which eight are from city and two are from Navi Mumbai. Those tested positive for H1N1 are --three school girls from Rims International in Andheri, one from J B Vaccha in Dadar, one from Dhirubhai Ambani school in BKC, one from Thane, one from St Dominic Savio school in Andheri, two from Navi Mumbai and one from Lonavala.
"As per the new protocol, those persons whose throat swabs have been sent for testing have been given Tamiflu so that they get the treatment at the earliest," Mhaiskar said. The sample test reports are taking nearly 24 - 36 hours as the number of samples have increased and there are only two labs for testing, Dr Sanjay Oak, Director of civic hospitals said. The civic administraion also said it would soon increase the bed capacity at Kasturba hospitals in Arthur Road by another 100 and 20 beds each at Siddharth hospital in Goregoan and M T Agrawal hospital in Mulund.
Prior to this, Mumbai had only 6 screening centres - Kasturba hospital in Parel, M T Agrawal in Mulund, Siddharth hospital in Goregoan, Bhabha hospital in Bandra, Bhagwati hospital in Borivali and Rajawadi hospital in Ghatkopar. "It was also observed that 80 per cent of persons got themselves tested at the new screening centres which eases the pressure at other hospitals," Mhaiskar said. The civic body also announced that the Disaster Management helpline number 108 will also answer queries pertaining to Swine flu. "There is only one helpline number for information on Swine flu and people often complaint that they cannot get through the number easily so we have decided that - 108 be another helpline number which is connected to 10 hunting lines," Mhaiskar said.