Bangladesh is preparing to tackle swine flu as the outbreak of the deadly H1N1 virus in neighbouring India has claimed more than 1,300 lives in the last two months. Medical teams are keeping round-the-clock watch on travellers at all 27 international air, land and sea ports in Bangladesh that shares a long porous border with India, health ministry officials told The Daily Star yesterday. “The mini
stry has made it mandatory to screen all travellers from India at the ports,” said Dr AKM Shamsuzzaman, director (communicable diseases) at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). People need not worry but they should remain cautious, he said. Seven archways and 70 hand-held thermal scanners, which the ministry purchased in the wake of Ebola outbreak in Africa last year, are now being used to screen travellers from India. Those coming from India are asked about the origin of their travel and whether they have fever, flu or cold, he said. Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said more than 6,000 trained doctors and nurses are there to take care of H1N1 patients. Each district hospital has an “isolation ward” for such patients. Advertisement Three travellers were diagnosed with H1N1 last month. They were cured of the deadly virus with proper treatment, he said. Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, professor at the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, said people have developed immunity to the virus over the years. “It is a mystery why so many people were infected and died in India in recent months,” he said, adding that the nature of the virus might have changed over time. “If that is true, H1N1 virus might infect people in Bangladesh during the flu season in April-May,” Ahmed, former director (communicable diseases) at the DGHS, told this correspondent. Dr Shahina Tabassum, head of virology department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, suggested vaccination for the vulnerable segments of the population -- elderly people, children, pregnant women and diabetic patients -- and those travelling to the affected country. The H1N1 virus was first detected in pigs in Mexico in 2009, and was later found in birds and humans. Its symptoms include fever, cold and respiratory problems. It can spread easily from one person to another through sneezing and coughs. People in the bordering districts, including Dinajpur, Joypurhat and Jessore, are worried over the deadly influenza, as 13 people died from the virus in India's West Bengal that has a porous border with Bangladesh's western districts. Many smugglers in those areas cross into India and return home without health screening, as they travel illegally. Several thousand travellers and truck drivers enter Bangladesh through Benapole land port every day, but all of them don't go through health screening, said officials at the port. “Initially, we had little risk as the Indian states that don't have borders with Bangladesh faced H1N1 outbreak. But the risk heightened when West Bengal got affected in late February,” said Shamsuzzaman. Though the swine flu outbreak hit West Bengal in mid-February, medical teams began work at Hili land port on March 1. Hla Moung, a BGB sector commander in Dinajpur, said three BGB battalions -- Dinajpur-2, Phulbari-29 and Joypurhat -3 -- were working round-the-clock to check illegal cross-border movement of people. Of 24,661 people infected with H1N1 in India, around 200 were in West Bengal. Most of the deaths from the virus -- around 900 -- occurred in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Our Dinajpur and Benapole correspondents contributed to this report.
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