Mumbai: First it was paceman S.Sreeshanth who was hopitalised after he tested positive to the H!N! virus or swine flu. Soon after the team’s video analyst Dhananjay was quarantined in his hotel room and the team manager Mayank Parekh was hospitlaised with flu like symptoms.
Soon comprehensive preventive measures were to put in place to ensure that other members of the Indian cricket team were not affected by the dreaded virus and preventive guidelines have been issued to cricketers to protect themselves from the H1N1 influenza.
However, till late last night, doctors were divided in their opinion on whether the entire team and support staff should be given Tamiflu drug as a preventive measure since most of them had come within close proximity of Sreesanth who first reported the symptoms in Nagpur five days ago.
Punjab's Nodal Officer for swine flu cases, Deepak Bhatia said a team of doctors had "screened" the players and those "who were in very close contact with Sreesanth would remain on the illness radar.
Meanwhile Delhi has become the new hub for the spread of the virus as more than half of the cases reported last week in the country were from the capital. Children are the worst hit and authorities are considering closure of schools to prevent the spread of the virus, which is causing the high rate of absenteeism in Delhi’s schools