The dreaded H1N1 virus that has claimed many lives over the past two years, has reared its ugly head once again in Mumbai

Yesterday, two Mumbaikars tested positive for the virus. After throat swabs were sent to Haffkine institute, pathological tests conducted on the samples diagnosed that the swine flu virus had infected a 37-year-old woman from Chandivli and a three-year-old girl.

The two diagnoses follow close on the heels of similar cases in Pune and Nashik. Alarmed by the re-emergence of the disease, the state health department had a closed-door meeting with experts last morning at the Mantralaya to think of measures that can safeguard the city from another pandemic.

Once may recollect at that the state health department had issued detailed precautionary guidelines to be adopted when the outbreak of the disease assumed the pandemic proportions two years back.

The state had even roped in private hospitals, which had prepared special quarantine wards for those afflicted with the disease.

Dr Abhay Chaudhary, director of Haffkine institute, said, "We have received samples from two city hospitals.

Tests were conducted in our Bio Safety level (BSL) 2 + labs, and the samples tested positive for the H1N1 virus. There is no use panicking, as the virus is here to stay.

It is an air-borne disease, and the weather is conducive to the multiplication and spread of the virus. There are bound to be more cases."

Dr Chaudhary added that the Haffkine Institute had started screening patients with severe acute respiratory illnesses in all outpatient departments (OPDs) of city hospitals in order to study the virus strains circulating in the city