CDC confirms swine flu cases in Holmes, Portage counties

Total of five confirmed statewide

Tuesday,  May 5, 2009 9:50 AM

Updated: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 10:30 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Two new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Ohio, one in Holmes County and one in Portage County, the Ohio Department of Health said this morning.

The cases, both in 39-year-old women, bring the total number of confirmed cases in Ohio to five, including two in Franklin County and one in Lorain County.

A confirmed case means tests have shown the person has the H1N1 flu virus. The first confirmed case in Ohio was that of a 9-year-old boy in Elyria. He's recovering at home, and his school was closed this past week

Holmes County health officials said that the woman whose case was confirmed early this morning has recovered and that no one she contacted has shown any symptoms. The woman in Portage County has also recovered and had been isolated, officials there said. No one she contacted has shown signs of the disease.

There are two probable cases. Ohio officials have been waiting on word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an 18-year-old freshman male at Ohio State University.

The student, who lives in Stradley Hall on campus, has been isolated.

This morning, state health officials said a 30-year-old man in Butler County has been listed as a probable case.

Probable cases are those where people have symptoms, likely had contact with the virus and tested negative for seasonal flu.

State health officials this morning reported three suspected swine flu cases in Fairfield County, two each in Delaware and Licking counties and one in Union County.

There are 35 suspected cases statewide. Suspected cases are those where the person has symptoms and may have had contact with swine flu virus. A total of 134 suspected cases have dismissed.

May 1, 2009

By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press Writer

President Barack Obama voiced hope Friday that the swine flu virus will run its course "like ordinary flus" as the government reported more than two dozen new cases and Continental Airlines curtailed flights into more heavily ravaged Mexico.

"I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to manage this effectively," Obama told reporters as got an update from his Cabinet on the federal response to the health emergency. At the same time, he emphasized that the federal establishment is preparing as if the worst is still to come so it won't get caught flat-footed.

Obama's fresh take on the flu scare — more intense in neighboring Mexico than in the United States but also present in some measure around the globe — came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the virus has been confirmed in eight more states.

Confirmed cases have risen from 109 to 141, the CDC said, and it said the flu now is in 19 states, up from 11. Separately a few states reported slightly higher numbers.

Obama said it wasn't clear whether the flu would be more severe than others before it, and he said the swine flu is a cause for special concern because it is new strain and people have not developed an immunity to it.

Government agencies are preparing in case the flu comes back in a more virulent form during the traditional flu season, the president said, talking of an overarching effort to help schools and businesses while also responding to pleas for help from other countries.

Meanwhile, Houston-based Continental became the first U.S. carrier to curtail service. Many travelers have become increasingly concerned about going to Mexico, though authorities there said new cases and the death rate was leveling off. Continental has over 500 flights a week between the United States and Mexico.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said Friday that no new deaths from swine flu were reported overnight for the first time since the emergency was declared a week ago. Mexico has confirmed 300 swine flu cases but stopped reporting suspected infections when the number approached 2,500. There have been a dozen confirmed deaths there from the flu, although reports have indicated that roughly 120 may have died from it.

Of the curtailment of airline flights, Continental's chairman and chief executive, Larry Kellner, said that "we were already experiencing soft market conditions due to the economy, and now our Mexico routes in particular have extra weakness."

No other U.S. carriers had announced capacity cuts. "We are hearing that there is a softening of demand to and from Mexico," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transportation Association, which represents airlines.

Clinics and hospital emergency rooms in New York, California and some other states are seeing a surge in patients with coughs and sneezes that might have been ignored before the outbreak.

The outbreak even touched the White House, which disclosed that an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently got sick helping arrange Obama's recent trip to Mexico but that the aide did not fly on Air Force One and never posed a risk to the president.

The aide, Marc Griswold, a former Secret Service agent who was doing advance work for Chu, told The Associated Press when reached at his Department of Energy office Friday that he was feeling better.

He declined to elaborate beyond comments in the Washington Post Friday.

"We're not the Typhoid Mary family, for goodness sake," he told the Post. "We've been told that we're not contagious. We're already past the seven-day mark for that."

So far U.S. cases are mostly fairly mild and, officials said, most so far haven't required a doctor's care.

Still, the U.S. is taking extraordinary precautions — including shipping millions of doses of anti-flu drugs to states in case they're needed.

Late Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was buying 13 million new treatment courses of antiviral drugs to replenish and grow the U.S. strategic stockpile. Eleven million treatment courses have been sent to states — 25 percent of each state's allotment — and the U.S. also announced plans Thursday to send 400,000 treatment courses to Mexico.

The World Health Organization is warning of an imminent pandemic because scientists cannot predict what a brand-new virus might do. A key concern is whether this spring outbreak will surge again in the fall.

The CDC added the following states Friday to its list of confirmed cases: New Jersey with five cases, Delaware with four, Illinois with three, Colorado and Virginia with two, and Minnesota and Nebraska each with one. The CDC reported one case in Kentucky and none in Georgia, while Georgia officials report one case there — that of a sickened Kentucky resident who traveled to Georgia.

CDC previously had confirmed cases in New York, Texas, California, South Carolina, Kansas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada

What I am finding more interesting than the progression of the disease (which IS fascinating) is the sniping, finger-pointing, and outright stupidity I'm seeing.  SERIOUSLY?  Don't call it "swine flu?"  It is a strain that has lived in pigs in years, the avian and human strain in the combination have lived in pigs for years, too.  I understand they want to alleviate some of the ridiculous overreaction to pigs and porcine products, but geeze, louise, this is STUPID!   It is a "swine flu".  Deal with it.  When I saw Israel was protesting the name "swine flu" I was appalled.  Then when Eqypt slaughtered all their pigs I was more appalled.  Petting piglets at a petting zoo is not likely to give you any problems, aside from dirty hands.  If you see an animal that looks sick, avoid it.  Common sense says you would do that ANYWAY.  Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to common sense?    It is a flu, it behaves like a flu.  I guess that's part of the problem.  MANY people think the flu is a stomach bug, and don't equate it only with the respiratory virus that makes you feel as though a mack truck has run you over.  A little reason and calm would be nice, but unfortunately, too many people thrive on drama and adrenaline.  This is something different from what we've seen before, true.  It's also true we don't have any natural immunity.  However, we also have many things in place that people fighting other pandemics did not have, including anti-virals and some sense about transmission and things of that nature.  Be careful, but don't seal yourself in a bubble!

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writers

Virulent swine flu spread to at least 10 U.S. states from coast to coast Wednesday and swept deeper into Europe, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas. Total American cases surged to nearly 100, and Obama said wider school closings might be necessary.

The World Health Organization said the outbreak is moving closer to becoming a full-scale pandemic.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's top flu expert, told reporters in Geneva that the latest developments are moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission. That's just one step below level 6, a full-fledged pandemic.

In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."

Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in Atlanta that there are confirmed cases now in ten states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while a single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, although those had not yet been included in the CDC count.

In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined on their California base until tests come back.

Marine General James Conway told a Pentagon briefing an initial test indicated the sick Marine — who was not identified — might have swine flu but his illness did not appear life-threatening.

Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico to Brownsville on April 4 and had been sick for five days before being hospitalized there. He then was brought to Houston where he died Monday night.

Texas called off all public high school athletic and academic competitions at least until May 11 due to the outbreak.

"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness.

Those sentiments were echoed by the Senate's top Republican. "This is a very worrisome situation and we're all following it very closely," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds."

Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.

The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.

In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus."

"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from it."

People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.

Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported four cases on Wednesday.

New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.

Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."

He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools — most prominently in New York City — already have followed.

"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be," Obama advised.

He advised people to take their own precautions — washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.

Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.

CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home — but now also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.

Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution," but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.

Here is the newest information from Ohio:

 

Swine flu arrives in Ohio

Lorain County boy, recently back from Mexico trip, is state's first case

Monday,  April 27, 2009 3:08 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

A 9-year-old boy from Lorain County in northern Ohio has a mild case of swine flu and is recovering at home, state officials said yesterday.

His is one of 20 confirmed cases of swine flu in five states, which caused federal officials to declare a public-health emergency and to warn that the virus is expected to spread.

"We're expecting the number to change," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We expect additional states to identify cases as we go. We'll be updating on a daily basis."

In addition to the Ohio case, eight have been confirmed in New York, seven in California, two in Kansas and two in Texas. Patients range in age from 7 to 54.

Officials said the cases look similar to the new, deadly strain of swine flu that has killed 103 people in Mexico and infected 1,614.

"Certainly, we have deaths in Mexico, and we haven't seen that yet here, but we feel that we will," Schuchat said. "We really need to prepare for the idea that we will have additional cases."

But only one of the people in the U.S. who tested positive has been hospitalized, officials said.

Though the cases in the United States are mild, "the most predictable thing about influenza is that it's unpredictable," said Dr. Forrest Smith, an epidemiologist with the Ohio Department of Health.

The world's governments raced to avoid both a pandemic and global hysteria yesterday as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand. The U.S. declared the health emergency so it could ship roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually need them.

"It's not a time to panic," the White House said.

There is not a global pandemic -- at least not yet. It's not clear how many people truly have this particular strain, or why all countries but Mexico are seeing mild cases. Nor is it clear whether the new virus spreads easily, one milestone that distinguishes a bad flu outbreak from a global crisis. But waiting to take protective steps until after a pandemic is declared would be too late.

"We do think this will continue to spread, but we are taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people's health," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the CDC.

The Lorain County boy and his family recently visited Mexico. Soon after returning, he developed upper-respiratory problems, a sore throat and a fever that reached 103 degrees.

He was taken to a nurse practitioner, who did a nasal swab after learning that the family had traveled abroad recently.

The protocol calls for the sample to be sent first to the state health department. When a test determined that it wasn't seasonal flu, the sample was sent to the CDC in Atlanta, where scientists confirmed it was swine flu.

The case was discovered by a nurse practitioner "who was aware of the situation and asked the appropriate questions and ordered the appropriate tests," Dr. Alvin Jackson, director of the state health department, said at a news conference yesterday.

The boy went to school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week before he was diagnosed. His classmates and their parents have been notified, Jackson said.

State officials plan to set up an emergency operations center where people can call for information. A phone number for the center wasn't available yesterday, but operations are expected to begin today.

"The state is working with all our public-health partners to take the necessary steps so that we're fully prepared," Gov. Ted Strickland said yesterday. Locally, health officials are monitoring retail sales of flu medicines, the number of hospital emergency-room visits and reports from health-care providers regarding flu-like symptoms, said Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Columbus Health Department.

Symptoms of the swine-flu virus resemble those of seasonal flu: fever, weakness, coughing and lack of appetite.

The seasonal-flu season is coming to an end, so many could have those symptoms, officials said. Testing to determine the type of flu can take 96 hours.

As of yesterday, no other swine-flu cases had been confirmed in Ohio.

Jackson said the state will receive shipments of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu, by Tuesday. The drugs can ease flu symptoms. But U.S. health officials say they are "very pessimistic" that seasonal flu vaccine protects against this swine flu.

Schuchat said CDC scientists are working on a vaccine, which could take several months. Officials haven't decided, she said, whether to combine the vaccine with the seasonal-flu vaccine they're already working on.

The CDC has teams in Mexico, California and Texas to investigate the outbreak. Governments worldwide have issued travel advisories urging people not to visit Mexico, the apparent origin of the illness.

Federal officials aren't stopping travelers coming from Mexico but are continuing their routine border precautions of questioning people who appear to be sick, Schuchat said.

In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, some church services were canceled yesterday and some markets and restaurants were closed. Few people ventured onto the streets, and some wore face masks. Canada became the third country to confirm cases, including in students who -- like some New York spring-breakers -- got mildly ill in Mexico.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the outbreak is serious but that the public should know "it's not a time to panic." He told NBC's Meet the Press that President Barack Obama was getting updates "every few hours" on the situation.

A 1976 swine-flu outbreak in Fort Dix, N.J., sickened more than 200 and resulted in one death.

The CDC receives reports of a swine-flu case every year or two. From December 2005 to February of this year, 12 cases were reported.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.

shoholik@dispatch.com