By RONNIE ELLIS
CNHI News Service
FRANKFORT
May 04, 2009 04:39 pm
—
A toddler from Hardin County is the latest probable patient suffering from H1N1 or swine flu in Kentucky, state officials announced Monday.
The state has confirmed one case – a Warren County woman who recently returned from Mexico, then traveled to Georgia where she fill ill and was hospitalized. The Hardin County case is the fifth suspected or probably case.
“We continue to investigate and identify possible cases of H2N2 swine flu in Kentucky,” said Dr. William Hacker, Commissioner of the Department of Public Health.
DPH officials said the child in Hardin County recently traveled “to an affected area in the U.S.” The child – who has not been hospitalized – attends a Ft. Knox child care center and state officials said they are working closely with Ft. Knox health officials and evaluating close contacts of the child for signs of illness and possibly preventive treatment.
The child care center has voluntarily closed through at least Wednesday and parents of other children who attend the center are being urged to keep their children home and monitor them for symptoms.
The previous four suspected cases were in the Barren River Health District, Fayette County, Montgomery County and Daviess County. The Barren River Health District serves Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Simpson and Warren counties.
Gwenda Bond, spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said none of the probable cases has been officially confirmed as swine flu by the federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta because “CDC has such a backlog of cases for testing.”
“But they’re telling us they have a 99 percent hit rate so far on the probable cases they’ve tested,” she said.
Kentucky thus far has been lucky, however.
“All of our cases have been relatively mild,” Bond said.
More than 20 deaths and more than 700 cases of the disease have been reported in Mexico, according to the World Health Organization. But in the United States, the severity of the disease has been mild with only one reported death from 245 confirmed cases in 35 states. Worldwide, WHO is reporting over 1,000 cases.
Hacker said state officials aren’t recommending extraordinary measures to protect against infection other than urging the public to stay informed and focus on practicing good health habits.
People should watch for symptoms like fever, chills, headache, sore throat, cough, body aches and vomiting or diarrhea. Anyone who develops symptoms within seven days of travel should seek medical evaluation promptly. Infected persons are advised to stay home from work or school.
Ways to protect against infection are to avoid close contact with infected persons, covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, avoid touching they eyes, nose or mouth and frequent hand washing. Hacker said last week the incubation period for the disease is seven days and an infected person is contagious from about 24 hours before the onset of symptoms and continuing for up to seven days.
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.