Officials taking steps to prepare

By Trent Moore

Staff Writer

The swine flu has yet to be confirmed in Cullman County, though it has likely found its way to Alabama.

“It’s important we stress there are still no confirmed cases in Cullman, as of now,” Alabama Department of Public Health employee Sondra Nassetta said Thursday afternoon.

Two elementary school students at Heritage Elementary School, in the Huntsville area, have the state’s first probable cases of swine flu. As a result, several schools in the Huntsville and Madison area have been temporarily closed to keep the sickness from spreading. As many as 10 additional cases have also been suspected in the Huntsville area.

“What’s happened is its now spreading just in the general population and it doesn’t require traveling anymore to pick up swine influenza,” State Health Officer Don Williamson said.

As of Thursday evening, there had been two Type A positive influenza tests taken at Cullman Regional Medical Center. The results have been sent to the state health department for further testing. Though the results were Type A — which is the same influenza type as swine flu — it does not specifically mean it is the swine flu strain.

“Most hospitals do not have the capability to test for the swine flu virus,” CRMC infection control practitioner Marti Smith said. “We can test for the A and B flu, but it isn’t specific for swine flu.”

During a Thursday press conference, Williamson said the state health department is currently testing more than 75 samples from across the state for the swine flu strain.

“We're literally being overwhelmed right now with samples for testing,” he said. “The samples and the conditions that we are most concerned about are individuals with fever. We are obviously concerned about anyone who is ill, but with influenza, it is really people with a fever and profound muscle aches who are most likely to have it.”

Nasetta said the most important thing people should remember is to take general flu prevention measures.

“Everyone should wash their hands frequently and if you have to cough, cough into your sleeve or into a tissue,” she said. “Those are the best preventative things to remember.”

Cullman City Schools Superintendent Dr. Jan Harris said the system will be taking some precautionary measures as the swine flu situation develops, though there are currently no plans to close city schools.

“We are meeting with our principals to go over our emergency plan,” she said. “We are also canceling all field trips outside of Cullman until next Thursday, then we’ll reassess things ... We are just going to wait and see.”

The Cullman County Board of Education is also canceling any field trips outside the county.

Allen said county school officials are monitoring the swine flu situation, though no school cancellations have been announced.

“We would make those decisions once we have more information that there is something here,” he said.

Both systems have sent letters home to parents encouraging basic flu prevention.

In addition, the Alabama High School Athletic Association has canceled all athletic events until at least May 5 as a precaution.

With public concern growing about a potential pandemic, Hospital Discount Pharmacy Manager Jeff Ashley said his Cullman store is sold out of surgical masks, which can be worn to prevent the spread of germs.

“We’re out and the warehouse is out,” Ashley said. “We’ve been sold out and are just trying to order some more.”

As of press time, Nassetta said the Cullman Health Department does not plan to distribute masks to the public at this time.

“We don’t believe that is necessary, yet,” she said.

If anyone believes they may have swine flu, they should visit a hospital, urgent care facility or a family physician.

Pandemic preparedness

In the event of an outbreak in Cullman county, Nassetta said she believes Cullman should be ready.

Agencies from across the county participated in a mock flu pandemic exercise April 24 at West Point Middle School, at about the same time the flu strain began to gain traction in the United States.

Representatives from the various agencies involved — such as the Cullman EMA, Cullman Regional Medical Center, Cullman Health Department and local law enforcement — met this week to discuss what lessons learned from the exercise could be applied in the event of a real pandemic.

One major issue: Communication.

“Our cell phones didn’t work at the West Point site,” Nassetta said. “That created some issues as we tried to keep in touch.”

Phyllis Little, with the Cullman Emergency Management Agency, recommended setting up an Internet connection at point of dispersal (POD) sites to allow digital communication.

“One thing we might want to look at using is Facebook or instant messaging to open up communication,” she said. “We could set up wireless routers at the sites, such as West Point School, and tie it in to the IT service there.”

Another concern was the security at the POD sites, which could be compromised with nurses passing in and out of the dispersal room.

“If people are having issues outside the point of dispersal site, we can’t allow nurses to go out and back in to help tend to them,” she said. “That may sound harsh, but in the case of a pandemic the main goal is to give people vaccines. If we let people out and in like that, it could create a security situation.”

If a pandemic did occur in Cullman, as many as seven different POD sites could be strategically placed around the county for easy public access.

“We may not open up all of them because of staffing,” Nassetta said, hypothetically. “It may not be feasible or necessary to do that.”

CRMC President and CEO Jim Weidner said the exercise gave the various agencies a chance to test their tactics in case of a real outbreak.

“I felt so comfortable, knowing we had already thought through a lot of the stumbling blocks we may encounter,” he said.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by the type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs. In addition, there have been documented cases of one person spreading swine flu to others.

As of press time, there are 109 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States.

More information about the swine flu can be found at the Alabama Department of Public Health Web site (http://www.adph.org), the Center for Disease Control Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu) and Cullman Regional Medical Center (http://www.crmchospital.com).

‰ The Associated Press contributed to this story.

‰ Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.