What you can do to prepare for H1N1 flu

(MCT) — Face masks aren’t recommended for the general public at this time, but public health officials want Iowans to know precautions they can take against the H1N1 flu, formerly known as swine flu.

“Our message is, we still need to look at practicing prevention now,” Curtis Dickson, director of Linn County Public Health, said last night at a news conference with officials from Mercy Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital and the Emergency Management Agency.

Those agencies, school districts and others have been meeting to discuss emergency plans should the H1N1 flu become more widespread.

Johnson County Public Health director Doug Beardsley said similar meetings were taking place in Johnson County.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States rose Thursday to at least 130, with one death of a toddler in Texas. Cases were reported in Arizona, California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

Results might not be known until today on the two possible cases of H1N1 — formerly called swine flu — in Iowa.

The specimens arrived Thursday at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Pat Blake, spokeswoman for the University Hygienic Laboratory, which conducts testing for the state, said results were expected within 24 hours, but timing depends on the CDC’s caseload.

Blake said the lab had sent out nearly 1,900 specimen collection tubes to doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals and had received back 329 samples for testing as of last night.

Though it’s late in the season, cases of seasonal flu were still being detected, she said.

The two suspected cases of H1N1 were identified Wednes day in Iowa from a man who had been in southern California and a woman who had been in Mexico.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, they traveled around Scott, Clinton, Johnson, Des Moines and Muscatine counties, doing everyday activities when they were in their infectious period.

Beardsley would not say where the potential patient had traveled in Johnson County but noted that residents who had been in contact with that person were contacted by public health workers.

Loreen Herwaldt, epidemiologist for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, said the high level of concern over the strain is because not much is known about mortality rates or how the virus will behave.

Also, she said, because the strain is new, no one has immunity, “so we’re all susceptible.” Both Beardsley and Dickson said face masks were not recommended for the public.

“There’s really no perceptible level of protection” for shoppers and others doing daily activities, Beardsley said.

Health care workers might use masks when treating patients with suspected flu and put masks on patients to avoid exposing others, Dickson and Beardsley said.

Anyone caring for a sick person at home could also wear a mask, they said.

A surgical mask or N-95 mask would work, but it should fit well over both the nose and mouth.

Schools and activities were not recommended to close at this time. That decision would be made at the local level with input from health officials.

Posters with information were sent to stores, restaurants and other locations in Linn and Johnson counties.

The message addresses preventing the spread of flu by thorough hand-washing with soap and water, or hand sanitizer when soap and water are unavailable; covering coughs with a tissue or your sleeve; staying at home when ill; and calling a doctor in advance if you have flu symptoms.

Symptoms include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people also have reported a runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Officials said the virus was spreading person-to-person.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and state veterinarian Dr. David Schmitt reiterated that the virus can’t be caught by eating pork, and there is no evidence of the flu in pigs in Iowa or any other state.

“I just want to remind Iowans that pork is safe to eat and our swine population remains healthy,” Schmitt said.

Research is under way by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine if the disease can be spread to swine, but in the meantime Northey and Schmitt encouraged Iowa’s pork producers to exercise extra diligence in long held biosecurity practices.