Flu curbs on Shillong pupils, staff

Student tests positive

Shillong, Aug. 18 : The Meghalaya health department has asked the teachers and classmates of a swine flu patient not to attend school for 10 days. These include 15 teachers and 117 students of Class VII, A, B and C divisions, at St Edmund’s School here. The move comes after Josuha Lyngdoh, a Class VII student of the school, tested positive for H1N1 virus on Saturday. He is one among the five persons who have tested positive for swine flu in the state. Director of health services K.H. Lakiang told reporters here that 117 students studying in A, B and C divisions of Class VII and 15 teachers were given medicines today and had been requested not to attend school for 10 days. “We want to make sure that the students and teachers who got associated with Lyngdoh are healthy and free from any symptoms of swine flu. Hence we screened all of them,” he added. Lyngdoh got the H1N1 virus from his friend and football player Salwit Tongper, 17, who tested positive on August 11. Tongper, the first positive case of swine flu in the state, is now normal and will be released from Shillong Civil Hospital soon, Lakiang said. The others, who tested positive for swine flu, are Mariabiang Latang, who is undergoing treatment at Sports Authority of India Hostel in Polo, Dolsius Syiemlieh, a ward attendant of Shillong Civil Hospital, and R. Lyngdoh, a student who returned from Pune. Lakiang said so far 16 samples, including that of Speaker Charles Pyngrope and his wife, had been sent to the National Institute for Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Calcutta. Of these, only five have tested positive so far, he added. The swab samples of Josuha’s sister, Grata, 10, and brother, Jason, 3-and-a-half, were taken and sent to Calcutta for testing today. Lakiang said this was necessary as Josuha was undergoing treatment at his residence. The health official said there was no harm in families treating patients at home, provided they followed the guidelines strictly.