TheDay.com - Swine Flu Rages On At Coast Guard Academy Swine Flu Rages On At Coast Guard Academy Number of cases up to 37 over weekend; more tests pending
By Jennifer Grogan
Published on 7/21/2009
New London - Ten percent of the freshman class at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has swine flu, and that number could rise in the coming days as more test results come in.
”We were expecting to see the number go up before it came back down because we had a lot of tests out still,” Petty Officer Ryan Doss, an academy spokesman, said Monday. “The flipside is that the number of people coming into the clinic feeling symptomatic has gone down. We hope it's an indication that this is going to keep declining, but we're going to stay prepared for anything.”
By last Friday, there were eight confirmed cases of swine flu, also called novel H1N1 influenza, with 22 more on Sunday, three early Monday and four more Monday afternoon. The total, 37, consists of 31 out of a class of 285 “swabs,” the newest students at the school currently taking part in a mandatory summer session, four cadets who were training them and two clinic staff members.
The academy submitted five more samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing Monday. Thirteen tests are pending.
”We're sending more samples in for testing than we originally did because we've seen cases of H1N1 that are not as severe,” Doss said. “People are not showing all the symptoms that medical staffs have seen throughout the country.”
Typical symptoms include a cough and low-grade fever with an average temperature of about 100 to 101 degrees, Doss said.
The first person to show these symptoms was isolated from the rest of the students and staff on July 9. The CDC confirmed that it was a case of H1N1 four days later.
Those who are ill are isolated for a week, or until they are symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer. The first person was released from isolation Thursday. Twenty-two people have been discharged, after an average weeklong stay, while 15 remain in isolation.
A Coast Guard epidemiology team visited the academy over the weekend and found that the academy has handled the outbreak well and instituted appropriate infection control measures, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, the Coast Guard's chief of media relations.
A group of swabs are scheduled to leave this Friday to meet the Coast Guard's training barque Eagle in Maine, but anyone admitted into isolation since Saturday will not be discharged in time.
”There are still two more port calls after Rockland, Maine,” Doss said, “so there is still a possibility that those in isolation will be able to go aboard Eagle this summer.”
About 180 high school students are also on campus, learning about the Coast Guard for possible future admission, but Doss said he was not aware of any of these students becoming sick.
All of the academy personnel are being treated by medical staff.
Those who are ill are isolated in the medical building or in a temporary ward set up in the barracks away from the other students, given the anti-viral medication Tamiflu and monitored, Doss said.
Doss said it would be hard to pinpoint how H1N1 was introduced at the academy, since hundreds of people visit the school grounds every week.
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