By RONNIE ELLIS
FRANKFORT — A Warren County woman has been hospitalized in Georgia with Kentucky’s first confirmed case of H1N1, or swine flu, state officials announced Thursday, and a probable case has been diagnosed in an infant.
Gov. Steve Beshear and Commissioner of Public Health Dr. William Hacker announced the developments at a news conference, saying the woman had recently returned from a trip to Mexico and a couple of days later traveled to Georgia where she fell ill. A second case in the Barren River Health District is suspected but has not yet been confirmed as swine flu. The district serves Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Simpson and Warren counties.
Beshear said there are no plans to curtail activities this weekend at the Kentucky Derby which “will go on as scheduled.” He said his administration has discussed preparations for dealing with any illness with officials of Churchill Downs, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson and health officials. Hacker said he’s always concerned about contagious diseases at events which draw large crowds but is no more concerned about the Derby this year than usual.
“We’re not doing anything differently than we would’ve done in February with regular, seasonal flu,” Hacker said.
But Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, a physician, recommended people attending the Derby carry along hand sanitizer and use it. He said the disease is transmitted from contact to mucous tissues and warned people not to use their hands to touch their eyes or mouth unless they’ve sanitized or thoroughly washed their hands.
Beshear said the child “had close contact with a family member who recently went to Mexico and returned.” The child, he said, has not been hospitalized since the case is apparently a mild one. Samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for further testing, but Hacker said he expects confirmation the child is suffering from swine flu.
Beshear said officials are not releasing the name of the county to avoid fear and anxiety by local residents but will identify the county if the illness is confirmed as swine flu.
Hacker said there are no plans to quarantine anyone in Kentucky to halt the spread of the disease and at one point was asked by a reporter if he thought this “is a big deal.”
“I am concerned,” Hacker said. “I’m not alarmed.”
He reminded reporters that “each year people in Kentucky die of regular, seasonal flu.” He said 500 Kentucky residents die from flu in a typical year and 36,000 die from the disease each year in the United States. Only one death has occurred in the United States since officials began monitoring the outbreak of the H1N1 strain of Type A flu. Mexico, however, has been hard hit with thousands stricken and over 150 deaths.
Hacker did say he expected deaths from the disease and “I will not be surprised if we identify more cases in Kentucky.”
He said the disease appears to have a 7-day incubation period and most who have the disease are thought to be infectious for about 24 hours before the appearance of symptoms and for up to seven days afterward. Symptoms generally include fever, chills, headache, sore throat, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea. He said if anyone suffers from such symptoms within seven days of traveling they should immediately contact their physician.
He suggested they call ahead to avoid having to sit in a waiting room and possibly contaminating other patients. But Hacker said people shouldn’t immediately rush to the doctor’s office with symptoms of a mild cold because officials are concerned public fear may over whelm the health care system.
Anti-viral drugs are effective in treating the diseases and most confirmed cases in the U.S. have been mild. He said the state has a plentiful supply of those drugs but cautioned against taking them if one hasn’t been diagnosed with the flu. That takes medicine off the market that may be needed by the genuinely stricken and also increases the chances the virus could mutate and develop resistance to the drugs.
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.
