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Flu samples from Orange, Lee, Broward sent to CDC for tests

News Channel 8 photo by WALLY PATANOW

There have been no confirmed cases of swine flu in Florida, health officials say.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 30, 2009

Updated: 04/30/2009 03:58 pm

TAMPA - Florida health officials are awaiting the results of three tests sent to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Thursday to see if swine flu has taken root in the Sunshine State.

Officials said that so far this week, more than 70 samples from hospitals, doctors' offices and walk-in clinics were sent to state labs to determine if they were swine flu. All but three were ruled out.

The suspected samples sent to Atlanta came from Broward, Lee and Orange counties, officials said. Results were expected sometime Friday.

State labs report samples are now arriving every hour. By today, 20 were from the Miami-Dade area alone. It was unknown how many were from the Tampa Bay region.

In Tallahassee on Thursday, Florida Surgeon General Ana Viamonte Ros said the suspected swine flu victims had mild flulike symptoms.

"All the suspected cases have been treated," she said, "and we have no one in any hospitals."

The news Thursday came after a group of South Carolina high school students who went on a band trip to Disney World last week returned with flulike symptoms and their school was shut down as a precaution, authorities said. By the end of the day South Carolina health officials said the students had come down with a case of the seasonal flu, not swine flu.

"It appears that those who do have flulike illnesses have the normal strain of regular seasonal flu," said Thom Berry, spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

"It does not appear to be the swine flu virus," he said late this afternoon.

Still, Mauldin High School, near Greenville, S.C., was closed Thursday so it could be cleaned and disinfected, authorities said.

Seventy students at Mauldin High went on the band trip to Disney.

By Thursday, about 300 of the nation's 132,000 schools had closed to prevent spread of the virus. School officials in Texas suspended high school sports.

Health officials say Florida is a likely swine flu target because of the influx of people coming into the state, aboard airplanes and cruise ships, many of which stop at ports in Mexico, the epicenter for the outbreak.

In Orlando, where theme parks draw millions of people a year, Orange County Health Department officials on Thursday announced the partial activation of the county's emergency operations center.

Orange County Mayor Richard T. Crotty said, "This has not begun to play out yet. We just want our citizens to know that we have a game plan."

He said the emergency operations center was upgraded to a Level 2 alert, which is not fully activated but brings together public health officials and emergency personnel to deal with the problem.

"We have world-class theme parks and world-class hospitals and we are working together as a team to make sure we mitigate the situation," Crotty said.

Orange County Health Department Director Kevin Sherin said, "I don't think the world has experienced something like this since 1968. With a widespread influenza, you are going to have a lot of people going to be sick. It's not a panic, but it is not something we will look at and minimize and say it's not a threat. It is a threat."

Florida is still in the seasonal flu season, he said, "and 99.9 percent of flu cases in Orange County is the seasonal flu."

According to the CDC, 109 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in 11 states as of this morning. The only confirmed swine flu death is that of a 23-month-old Mexican child Wednesday in Texas.

Hillsborough County Department of Health spokesman Steve Huard said that divulging numbers of tests from suspected swine flu cases "is irresponsible" because the numbers change on an hourly basis.

"We are receiving samples at all the state labs from doctor's offices, walk-in clinics and hospitals," he said. "We can't keep up with the count."

He said state and local health officials are stressing personal infection control among Florida's residents and visitors.

"If you're sick, don't go to work," he said. "Don't cough into your hand and then handle the gas pump. If you are sick and you take public transportation to get to work, maybe today would be a good day to stay home."

While humans can catch swine flu from infected pigs, transmission of the disease cannot be made by eating a pork chop or bacon, according to the CDC.

"Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food," said the CDC's Web site. "You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products."

Mark Cacciatore, owner of Cacciatore & Sons butcher shop in Tampa, said he hasn't seen any impact on the sale of pork products.

"It might be too soon to ask me that question," he said. "All this has just started."

But as of today, business was still rolling along.

"My sausage is made out of pork and that isn't slowing down on that," he said. "It's selling like it always has."

Honey Baked Ham worker Steve Provost said business at his shop has actually gone up.

"A year or so ago, people from the other side of the world had the bird flu and sales of poultry went down," he said. "Now, we've got swine flu here, and it's not affecting us."

In Tampa, Carnival Cruise Line's Inspiration arrived in port this morning, fresh from a five-day voyage into the western Caribbean that included stops at Grand Cayman but not Cozumel. Some passengers agreed with the captain's decision not to stop at the Mexico port but were upset about not going anywhere else.

Kristy Egg said the decision to bypass Cozumel came late the night before the ship was to dock.

"They had no backup plan," she said.

Egg asked whether there would be a refund and was told the only refund would be a port charge of $20. The ship ended up staying at sea during the time it was supposed to have been at Cozumel, she said. Drink and gambling specials were offered, she said.

"A third of the ship did not get off in Grand Cayman," she said. "They were going to get off at Cozumel the next day. Everybody was happy not to go to Cozumel, but most wanted another option."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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