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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > MARIN CONTINUES SWINE FLU PREPARATIONS
Article published - April 29, 2009
Credit: MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
Marin continues swine flu preparations; state officials predict the disease will spread
By Jennifer Upshaw
No new swine flu cases emerged in Marin on Wednesday but public health, health care and school officials remained on high alert as the rapidly spreading disease continued to move through California.
Two "probable" cases of swine flu were revealed Tuesday by Marin health officials, who said a 60-year-old woman and her 20-month-old granddaughter got sick after a trip to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which included stops in hard-hit Mexico City. No other family members were sick. Both were recovering well at home, county officials said.
The cases remained probable on Wednesday as official confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is expected to take several more days, officials said.
In Marin, public health officials tested 28 cases on Tuesday and 18 samples on Wednesday. All have come back negative.
"Everybody we've tested has been ruled out so far," said county spokesman Mike Giannini. "We're waiting to see if any additional cases surface within the county and continuing to provide information to our community partners with respect to ways to avoid any type of cross-contamination or any contamination amongst others."
Statewide on Wednesday there were 14 confirmed cases: five in Imperial County, one in Sacramento County, one in San Bernardino County, seven in San Diego County; and 29 probable cases, including the two in Marin. There have been six hospitalizations, but no deaths in the state. The median age of patients is 14 years,
and they range from 1 to 81 years old, state public health officials said.
"We are fully expecting that we will see increases in numbers," said Dr. Mark Horton, state public health director. "It really gets down to the fact that this is a novel virus. This is a virus, to our knowledge, a human being has never been exposed to before. That's why we're paying much more attention to this than you might say an annual seasonal flu."
State public health officials issued recommendations on school closures, suggesting that institutions with a confirmed, probable or highly suspected case should shutter the school for at least seven days.
In Marin, officials continued to prepare, said Mary Jane Burke, county schools chief.
"We were in briefings this morning with our public health people at the command center, then we had a conference call with the superintendents and the school nurses," she said. "We are, at this point, we do not have any probable cases related to school-age students. We're not there yet."
Still, preparations are being made should students require dismissal, she said.
"We've developed our protocol on decision-making around that," she said, saying that criteria would include data, consultation with experts and collaboration with local and state officials. "It sounds like in the end of the story people are going to move in excess of caution because nothing is more important than the safety of our students and staff."
At the Marin Community Clinics, many people with the sniffles were turning out to be tested, said John Shen, executive director.
"I think we have a lot of anxious family members; we have a lot of people coming in with all kinds of symptoms but not necessarily swine flu-related," he said. "People want to get a sense that they don't have the disease."
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