Satyen at hospital on Wednesday. (Pradip Sanyal)

A 34-year-old man returning from Dubai was intercepted at the airport after he was found to be suffering from swine flu symptoms and sent to Infectious Diseases Hospital on Wednesday morning.

The throat and nasal swabs of Satyen (name changed to protect identity) — suffering from cold, fever and headache — have been sent for tests to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, and the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

Hospital superintendent B. Bhandari said: “The patient is complaining of body ache but he does not seem to be suffering from swine flu.” The hospital authorities have contacted the patient’s family in Nadia.

Satyen, who works as a carpenter in Dubai, reached Calcutta on an Emirates flight at 8.30am. Members of the airport’s health unit noticed that he was suffering from fever and cold. When he also complained of headache, the authorities decided to send him to the Beleghata hospital.

Satyen was made to wear a face mask and a flu kit which covered almost his entire body while being taken to the hospital, where he was quarantined.

At the hospital, he often took off the mask and on one occasion, even managed to step out to the corridor and speak to journalists.

“There is nothing wrong with me except irritation in the tongue because of an ulcer. They have forcibly detained me,” he said. Relatives said Satyen had recently lost his wife and suffered a mild stroke “just over a week ago”. He has an eight-year-old son.

The state government had issued a swine flu alert on April 28 and decided to quarantine anyone coming from the US, Europe and Mexico with symptoms of the disease.