With one-third of all swine flu samples examined by the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) here in January having tested positive, the Telangana government held an urgent cabinet meeting on Wednesday to deliberate on measures to control the raging H1N1 virus. A 26-year-old woman died early in the day at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, taking the toll in Telangana to 11 this month. Thirteen new cases were also reported on Wednesday. Of the 687 samples examined by the IPM, 34.06% tested positive. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao spent the entire day holding meetings with health and hospital officials to prepare for the visit of a Union health ministry team on Thursday. "It's a complex situation as one-third of samples testing positive could lead to cross-infection if preventive measures are not taken immediately to identify and isolate victims suffering from swine flu for treatment," said Dr Raghupathy Anchala of the department of epidemiology, Indian Institute of Public Health. While the dip in temperature in January is being singled out as the reason behind the surge in H1N1 cases, health experts believe the 'Sankranti effect' has played a big role. "Even a few infected persons travelling with lakhs of people to their hometowns in overcrowded public transport vehicles could have resulted in the sudden spurt as many got exposed to droplet infection or infected object," said Dr H Guru Prasad, a consultant at Yashoda Hospitals.
