At least eight Californians and 41 American residents have
contracted swine flu, but no deaths were reported and Santa Clara
County was still in the clear as of Monday afternoon, a county
spokeswoman said.
At least eight Californians and 41 American residents have contracted swine flu, but no deaths were reported and Santa Clara County was still in the clear as of Monday afternoon, a county spokeswoman said.
The county has received several possible cases of swine flu, but testing flu strains and comparing them to known Mexican infections requires at least 24 hours, Santa Clara County Health Department spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said. Health officials spent Monday afternoon analyzing strains taken from from residents and expected test results Tuesday at the earliest. If local scientists cannot link the samples, then state and federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will test them again to confirm the results.
“There are no cases in Santa Clara County, but we are concerned about the situation because it’s so serious in Mexico, and this new virus means people don’t have any immunity to it,” Alexiou said, adding that the county had activated its Emergency Operations Center as a cautionary measure. “We’re talking to hospitals about infection control measures so as they receive patients, they can take the appropriate precautions.”
Federal health officials believe the flu, which regularly affects pigs but rarely humans, originated in Mexico, and they are concerned because it is a new virus for which people have little or no immunity and no vaccine. Aside from the eight confirmed cases in California, there have been two in Kansas, 28 in New York City, one in Ohio and two in Texas. All people stricken with the flu have recovered, unlike during the 1918-19 pandemic that killed more than 50 million people throughout the world, including about 650,000 Americans, according to the CDC.
Local officials at Saint Louise Regional Hospital, Kaiser Permanente and Gardner Family Health Network confirmed that they were cooperating with county and state health officials but officials at each of the facilities said there were no suspicious cases Monday.
“The main thing is trying to be out there and observing and doing aggressive surveillance and then getting that information to the county and the CDC. That will help us approach this in a standard, scientific way,” said Ricardo Lopez, chief of medical services with Gardner, which runs 18 mobile and stationery clinics between here and San Jose. The stations on wheels serve mostly migrant camps, and Lopez said Monday afternoon they were headed to various sites in and around Gilroy to see a portion of the 20,000 or so people the provider serves in southern Santa Clara County.
An outbreak at a migrant camp could spell disaster, Lopez said, “But at this point, thank God there’s nothing reported in this county. Now we’ve just got to be vigilant.”
Saint Louise Regional Hospital Spokesperson Jasmine Nguyen said the U.S. Department of Health released about a quarter of its flu-fighting stockpile of Tamiflu and Relenza for the treatment of confirmed swine flu cases. California will receive 25 percent of its 5 million courses of treatment – or 1.25 million courses – Nguyen wrote in an e-mail. If a pandemic does break out, those courses will first go to emergency workers, according to county and local officials.
“Our first responders would be vaccinated first,” said Gilroy Spokesperson Joe Kline, who helps coordinate the city’s Emergency Operations Center, which would not be activated without county direction. In case of an outbreak emergency, the county will set up so-called points of distribution for triage-like inoculations, but based on scenarios two years ago in connection with the avian flu scare, Kline said it all seemed a bit overwhelming.
“It seemed like a real logistical challenge at best,” Kline said.
For concerned residents, Alexiou said they should practice basic hygiene and remain calm.
“We don’t know how severe this outbreak may become or how much it may spread,” she said. “Start preparing. We’re asking people to review their plans, and this is a great opportunity for them.”
State health officials reported that California’s victims did not travel to Mexico or visit with relatives from that country. They are also struggling to understand why this state’s cases have been relatively mild compared to fatalities in Mexico.
To curb the potential spread, an employee at the South County Airport in San Martin who was not authorized to speak on the issue said officials there were “just being cautious.” An aircraft taking off from San Martin can cross America’s southern border in 3.5 hours, the employee said.
“Once they pull up the wheels, it’s anybody’s guess where they’re going.”
At San Jose Mineta International Airport, Communications Director David Vossbrink said he was just hearing common sense, hand-washing advice from health authorities. That airport carries a daily round-trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, and hosts “several flights a week” to Morelia.
Councilman Perry Woodward is spending the next four days on vacation with his family in Cabo San Lucas, at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. He took off Monday before the CDC issued travel precautions to the country, where customs officials at the airport wore surgical masks, Woodward said.
“So far there have been no reported cases in any of the resort areas near Cabo San Lucas,” Woodward said from the country Monday. “If anything changes, we’ll be heading home.”
