Search giant Google has shut down its office at Madhapur for two days after one staffer was tested positive for swine flu and five others were quarantined in city hospitals with suspected symptoms.
However, the Ranga Reddy health officials were only able to give the prescribed Oseltamavir tablets for two days to the 300 other employees of Google because of lack of stocks. The tablets should be given to those who have been in contact with infected persons continuously for 10 days to prevent them from catching the flu.
“Our officials visited Google and distributed tablets,” said Dr Shobavati, the district medical and health official. “But we could only distribute 600 to 700 tablets.” Dr K. Subhakar, coordinator of the Chest Hospital H1N1 influenza nodal centre, said trouble started when an employee of an IT firm who returned from Houston on July 5 tested positive for swine flu.
This techie’s roommates included a Google employee and three others and all of them were infected. Other Google employees caught it from their colleague. “One of our contractual workers in Hyderabad has been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus and been hospitalised,” said a Google spokesperson. “As a precautionary measure, we have closed the office for two days and are taking all steps to sanitise the common areas.”
The search giant played down the incident and said the two-day closure would not affect business since the Madhapur office was not its main centre in Hyderabad. “This is a small centre with very few people,” said the spokesperson. Meanwhile, three new cases of swine flu were detected here taking the total number of confirmed infections to 34.
They included a 35-year-old woman who came from Florida on British Airways, a 29-year-old techie who arrived by Indian Airlines, and a 28-year-old businessman who came from Thailand.
“Of the 34 swine flu cases, 21 were discharged after full recovery and we are continuing treatment for the remaining 13,” said Dr Subhakar.
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