Three patients are hale and hearty
The three city-based patients who tested positive for H1N1 virus appeared to be healthy on Wednesday. They might have had symptoms in the
beginning but now they are hale and hearty. The patients who tested positive include a couple staying in Dharampeth and a 20-year-old youth from Jaripatka.
The husband and wife are both engineers based in Pune while the Jaripatka youth had gone to Pune on August 5 to fill an admission form for further studies. That is where they might have contracted the virus. All of them came to Nagpur on August 7 and began having flu-like symptoms. They had been to the Government Medical College and Hospital where they gave their blood and swab samples. Speaking to TOI, the Dharampeth couple claimed that the GMCH authority had not contacted them until 6.30 pm.
On the other hand, the GMCH dean Dr Deepti Dongaonkar said that when the hospital authority contacted the family members to inform them they had tested positive, they were told that the couple had gone for evening walk. A resident of Bhandara, the 26-year-old youth got married two months back with Dharampeth girl and used to stay in a rented house at Shirul, Pune. A mechanical engineer with Harita Seating Company, Pune, he said that in July last week he had appeared for an interview. Later, he started suffering from cold, cough and fever.
Soon, his wife too had developed similar health problems. Fearing swine flu, the couple came to Nagpur by a private bus on August 7. They visited Dr Vishwas Dashputra’s clinic in Deonagar. “As we had returned from Pune, the doctor referred us to the GMCH. The doctors there took our blood samples and informed us that they would let us know the report after three days. They also directed us to stay in quarantine. Apart from staying in isolation, we continued with the medicines prescribed by our doctor. Dr Dashputra said he did not recollect examining the couple. However, he said that he was referring any patient who had from either Pune or Mumbai to GMCH. Till late evening on Wednesday, the couple was at their Dharampeth residents and had not been admitted to GMCH.
The Jaripatka youth said that soon after he developed the flu-like symptoms he approached the GMCH on August 7. Even though his parents were not much educated, still they maintained quarantine and now he too was healthy. Meanwhile, sources in GMCH said that the youth would be admitted in the isolation ward on Thursday morning. To another query, the couple said that if the doctors advised, they too were ready to get admitted for further treatment.