New Delhi: The Central Government went into crisis control mode on Sunday deciding to monitor H1N1 Influenza A (swine flu) at the Prime Minister's Office level following four death from the disease out of which three have taken place in the past 24 hours.
Union Health Ministry has asked crisis management groups in all states to meet and monitor the situation regularly to contain the disease which has already affected at least 783 people.
Maharashtra government has also called a high-level meeting to discuss and come up with a plan to deal with swine flu.
The high-level meeting will consider closure of shopping malls, schools and cinema halls just like Mexico for a week in Pune and Satara districts, which have been the worst hit by swine flu.
Sassoon Hospital in Pune has decided to give Tamiflu to all patients, even those suspected of swine flu to contain the disease.
Sassoon Hospital's Dean Dr Arun Jhamkar said that Tamiflu dose has now been increased to 150 mg twice a day for critical patients.
"Those patients who are critical and are on ventilators... we are giving them double dose of Tamiflu, i.e. 150 mg twice a day instead of the standard 75 mg twice a day," said Dr Jhamkar.
One more team from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi has reached Pune and will proactively seek out people suffering from the H1N1 virus and check for symptoms.
Till now the state government was allowing people to voluntarily report to hospitals for testing.
Maharashtra has been the worst-hit state with 205 people have tested positive for swine flu in Pune alone.
Two schools Dhirubhai Ambani international school in Bandra and JB Vaccha in Dadar have been closed in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the country has witnessed three more swine flu deaths in less than 24 hours taking the total death toll to four.
A 43-year-old Non Resident Indian man died of swine flu in Ahmedabad on Sunday morning while on Saturday a 42-year-old teacher died of swine flu in Pune and a 53-year-old Mumbai woman succumbed to the virus.
The NRI had come to Ahmedabad with his wife from Atlanta in USA on July 31. The couple developed swine flu symptoms on August 5 and tested positive two days later on August 7.
A 14-year-old girl from Pune, Rida Shaikh, was the first one die because on swine flu. The Pune teenager has fallen prey to the dreaded H1N1 virus on August 3.
In Delhi, too, the disease has shown no signs of abating with Sanskriti School being closed for one week after two of its students tested positive for the H1N1 virus.
The Delhi government has also called for urgent meeting to discuss measures to control swine flu.
Sanskriti was closed on Friday as well, after a miscommunication labelled one of its students as having the H1N1 virus.
However, the student was merely a high-risk patient and tested negative at after diagnostic test at the NICD.
"Sanskriti School's decision is independent. Government is vigilant and Delhi schools are following all advisories of the health department. It's unlikely that we will shut schools," Delhi government said.
Meanwhile, in Chennai 43 people have been affected by the deadly virus. A three-and-half-year old child tested positive for the H1N1 virus on Saturday.
The child's existing asthma condition has only complicated matters further. His father came from Singapore a few days ago, but has showed no symptoms of swine flu.
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