28 school kids develop respiratory infection

SHIVAMOGGA: AS many as 28 students of the Government Higher Primary School (GHPS) at Hegalatti village of Tirthahalli taluk have been admitted to various hospitals in the district with fever and upper respiratory tract infection. Two teachers too have been admitted with similar symptoms.On March 4,  some students complained about fever, and thereafter complaints from a number of students from the same school rose day by day. By Friday morning, as many as 19 students of the same school have been admitted to the district McGann Hospital. About eight students are admitted to the JC Hospital, Tirthahalli, and a couple of students to a private hospital in the city.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Dr Raghunandan, district surgeon of McGann Hospital, said, “All the students have similar complaints -  fever coupled with throat pain. We diagnosed that they are suffering from ‘Acute Pharangitis’. We are suspecting the infection to be ‘Influenza B’ and are expecting a report by Sunday morning. It might be viral as it has gripped these many children of the same school,” he said.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Divakar, a parent, said, “My daughter and son are down with fever and complaining about throat pain. The same complaints were received from many children of the school. The infection spread across 29 students of the school. Some students reported this on March 4, and thereafter many students complained about it. For the past two days, our children have been in the hospital. On and off, they have been getting fever.”

Teacher Ramesh, who had similar symptoms and is down with fever, got admitted to a hospital along with another teacher.  Ramesh said, “A few students got fever on March 5 and thereafter the number increased. Parents and teachers too were worried about it. So, we brought the students to McGann Hospital on Thursday evening. Now many of them are feeling better,” he said.

Dr Raghunandan said “Blood samples of all the children are normal. However, for confirmation whether it is viral or not, throat swab samples have been sent to the Virology Department at Manipal.  We are suspecting the infection to be ‘Influenza B’ and are expecting a report by Sunday morning. It might be viral as it has gripped these many children of the same school,” he said.Further he said, the condition of all the children is stable. They are responding to antibiotics and their throat pain too has come down.  

Tirthahalli MLA Kimmane Ratnakar, former MLA and BJP leader Araga Jnanendra, Shivamogga MLA K B Prasanna Kumar, CEO Rakesh Kumar, DDPI Machado and other senior officials visited the hospital.  
Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) P F Machado told The New Indian Express that, “Following this fever, the department has announced holidays for the school till Monday (March 12). All the children are doing well and hope they will be discharged from the hospital,” he said.