Swine flu hits NE Ohio

By SUZANNE HOHOLIK

It’s no time to panic, White House urges

An emergency operations center for swine flu information will be set up in Ohio today.

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

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 1,6 00 more.

‘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 state health department.

The world’s governments raced to avoid both a pandemic and global hysteria Sunday 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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 Ohio Department of Health. 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 on 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 Sunday, 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.

CDC scientists are working on a vaccine, which could take several months. Officials haven’t decided 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 customs and border precautions of questioning people who appear to be sick, Schuchat said.

The CDC is preparing yellow cards to hand out to travelers at airports warning them of swine-flu symptoms and precautions to take.

In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, some church services were canceled 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, in six people, including students who ‘” like some New York spring-breakers ‘” got mildly ill in Mexico.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the outbreak was serious but that the public should know ‘it’s not a time to panic.’ He told NBC’s Meet the Press that President 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.