KATHMANDU, July 2: The 17-month second son of the non-resident Nepali couple and another relative have been diagnosed with the pandemic H1N1 2009 virus, otherwise known as swine flu, on Wednesday taking the total count to five.
The five-year-old relative, who came in contact with the family here in Kathmandu, and the younger brother of the earlier infected eight-year-old boy are in self-quarantine at the apartment like the trio that recovered after being confirmed with the disease on Sunday. [break]
“Being a doctor´s family, they are on self quarantine and have started taking tamiflu [medication] from Wednesday,” Coordinator of the Avian Influenza Control Project Dr Manas Kumar Banerjee said.
The US-based NRN family had arrived in Kathmandu from Washington via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight on June 21 for vacation and was believed to have contracted the disease in Washington.
The further infection of two has raised concerns that it may have been contracted to others who may have been in contact with the NRN family and now the other boy.
But Dr Banerjee feels that there is no need to panic as 99 percent of the pandemic H1N1 infection is mild and even the one percent of serious cases can be treated. He reveals all the five confirmed infections found in Nepal are of mild nature.
How close is too close for infection?
Dr Banerjee says that in normal circumstances the virus can only be transmitted to a person in the vicinity of a meter from the infected and can only go farther in case of coughing or sneezing. Even in case of sneezing and coughing, it cannot go more than a few meters far.
So, there is no need to be nervous even if some one close in the neighborhood gets infected if the infected is on quarantine. “And even if one comes in contact with the person, only one third of them contract it,” Dr Banerjee says.
Dr Banerjee feels that the need of the hour is to follow the preventive measures advised by the Health Ministry and expanding the reach of the treatment facilities throughout the country. “The government should raise awareness about it so that we are well prepared before the onset of flu season in Nepal in November,” Dr Banerjee says.
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