Nagpur Patients continue to await reports

Nagpur Patients continue to await reports

Even as the number of people claiming to be swine flu patients continued to throng the GMCH, the hospital has not got a single report on
any blood, throat and nasopharyngeal swap samples sent last Thursday apparently due to the increased load at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and Haffkine Institute, both in Pune, which are conducting tests for the entire state.

Till Sunday, the time the first suspected patient from Akola was admitted to GMCH, 15 patients have been admitted to the isolation ward and discharged as they tested negative. The reports of these patients were received within 24 hours from NIV. But, from last Thursday, the institute has not sent report of any samples. Five patients who were admitted on a single day last week preferred to go back home and wait for the report. GMCH discharged them with special instructions for home quarantine.

Samples of another 18 suspected cases of outdoor patients and a two-year-old girl, admitted for a short period in the isolation ward, will be sent to NIV on Tuesday by special air courier.

Also on this flight will be the blood and swap samples of the resident doctor from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College who has just returned from Pune after meeting his family and staying at the B J Medical College and Sasoon Hospital for six days. He was admitted to the isolation ward at 6.30 pm on Monday.

“The chances of getting any report quickly are minimal. Hence, we are treating patients symptomatically,” said GMCH dean Dr Deepti Dongaonkar.