In northeast India, a 19-year-old Manipuri woman fencer and a 17-year-old Meghalaya footballer were tested positive for the swine flu disease earlier this month.

The Manipuri fencer had returned from a competition in Singapore while the Meghalaya soccer player had returned from Britain recently. Both of them are now under treatment in Imphal and Shillong respectively.

Several teams of experts from the central health ministry are now visiting the northeastern states to impart training to doctors and to supervise the treatment facilities developed in these states.

All the states in the northeast have been put on swine flu alert to prevent outbreak of the disease and a number of observation centres set up at the border check posts and airports.

'Following the direction of the health ministry, one hospital in each district of the seven northeastern states has been equipped to treat patients infected with H1N1 virus,' said A.C. Dey, one of the experts from New Delhi.