Thiruvananthapuram, June 9 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his family are now under the watchful eyes of medical experts after his driver Sundaran tested positive for H1N1 (influenza A) virus — often referred to as swine flu.
Sundaran is admitted to the General Hospital here.
‘Yes it is true but I used a different car once I heard the news of his illness,’ Achuthanandan said Wednesday at a cabinet briefing here.
The car that was driven by Sundaran has been quarantined.
Negating the statement by Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi that the media was cooking up false stories that the state was in a fever siege, Achuthanandan said: ‘Due to rains several ailments have surfaced. All local bodies in the state will start a week-long campaign to see that proper sanitary conditions are maintained.’
For the last one week, the media had reported about spread of fever in the state — including from H1N1 virus, dengue, malaria and rat fever.
Five people died due to fever Tuesday while nearly 2,000 got admitted to various state-run hospitals.
The central health department Wednesday came out with a report that Kerala leads in the country with the highest spread of influenza A (H1N1) virus and in the last one week alone 19 people tested positive for the virus.
