Although San Diego County health officials announced that more confirmed cases of swine flu should be expected within days, UCSD’s Student Health Services has not yet reported any incidences.
‘We have been testing students who have flu symptoms as well as fever, and all have tested negative,’ SHS Medical Director Gina Fleming said.
On Wednesday, SHS stopped testing students with mild flu symptoms in favor of testing only the seriously ill. Current precautions include putting students exhibiting flu symptoms in a separate area in the waiting room and providing them with masks to prevent the spread of germs.
‘The San Diego County Health Department has made the recommendation that we only test people who have symptoms so severe that we are considering hospitalizing them,’ Fleming said early Wednesday morning.
SHS’s Urgent Care clinic saw an average number of student visitors Monday, but an unusually high percentage reported having sore throats and colds, Fleming said.
‘It is possible that this has been around for a while and that we may see more cases just because we’re now looking for it,’ Fleming said. ‘That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ‘spreading’, but that we are just ‘seeing’ what’s already been there.’
There have been five confirmed cases in the county. All reports have been mild in nature, and those infected have made full recoveries.
Three probable cases have also been reported. The most recent was a San Diego State University student, announced late Tuesday night. City officials are awaiting Centers for Disease Control test results to confirmed the three cases as swine flu.
The previous Tuesday, a 10-year-old boy was the first to be infected with the virus in San Diego County. Since then, laboratory testing through the CDC has confirmed cases of swine flu in a 54-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter, a 7-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, and California became the first state to begin performing in-state laboratory testing instead of sending samples to the CDC laboratory in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, the White House requested $1.5 billion from Congress to fight the outbreak by producing more antiviral drugs and working on a vaccine specific to swine flu.
The virus has hit 11 states and eight countries. There are 14 confirmed and 17 probable cases in California.
The swine flu outbreak originated in Mexico, and the only fatality from swine flu outside of Mexico ‘mdash; a 23-month-old Mexican toddler visiting Texas ‘mdash; was confirmed Wednesday morning.
At the UCSD Medical Center, staff members are taking extra precautions to prevent the flu from spreading.
‘We prepare all year round for these types of emergencies,’ UCSD Medical Center spokeswoman Jackie Carr said. ‘We drill to make sure we are ready in the event that something like this takes place. ‘hellip; We aren’t wearing masks at the moment, but we are making sure that everyone is washing their hands carefully, especially every single time following a sneeze or cough, wiping down hospital surfaces and screening all patients for signs of flu.’
Infected patients have been treated with Tamiflu and Relenza, the only medications to which the virus is currently responding.
‘Stocks of Tamiflu and other medications are available, and we do have access to the stock when the time is right,’ Carr said. ‘They will be distributed strategically based on where and when cases evolve.’
San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency senior medical consultant Dr. Nick Yphantides said CDC released 25 percent of the storage units of antiviral medications with first priority to parts of the country where there have been confirmed cases.
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