Swine Flu Delaware

As the number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States climbed Monday, Delaware acted to protect itself.
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Signs of edginess ranged from canceled travel plans to runs on surgical masks.

The DuPont Co., one of the state's largest private employers, banned travel to or from Mexico until May 6 and provided workers worldwide with information about the illness.

State Division of Public Health officials said they moved to a higher degree of readiness and stepped up communication, although no cases had been confirmed in the state. Five probable cases were identified Monday night in New Jersey.

Enough anti-viral medication is stockpiled in Delaware to treat 120,000 sick patients, and another 30,000 treatments are expected this week following the partial opening of federal reserves.

"While there isn't a significant risk to people now in Delaware, this is potentially a serious situation that we're watching very closely," said Paul Silverman, associate deputy director for the Division of Public Health. "We have been preparing for this for years. We're telling people right now that, in Delaware, there's nothing to worry about, unless you have recently traveled to Mexico or know somebody was ill or suspected of having swine flu."

News that some of the American cases were among students returning from their spring break put Delaware public schools and colleges on alert, but none have received any reports of students with flu-like symptoms.

A group of six cadets from the Delaware Military Academy traveled to Cancún and Playa del Carmen with a teacher for their spring break earlier this month. Charles Baldwin, commandant at the academy, said that while there have been no reports of symptoms among travelers, many remain uneasy.

"We are concerned, certainly the whole world is concerned," Baldwin said. "But I am not sure exactly what more than concern we can do."
Plan in place

Ron Gough, public information officer for the Delaware Department of Education, said his department has been in communication with school districts and the Division of Public Health.

"We have plans in place in case this elevates," Gough said, "but the situation is normal right now."

Jill Maser, director of health services at Wesley College, said students have been back from spring break for well over a month and have not reported symptoms. Wesley sent out a precautionary e-mail to students Monday, but Maser said they are not being overly cautious.

"I haven't seen anything that I have been alerted about by doctors that would make me test for swine flu," she said.

Delaware's Department of Agriculture called on pork producers to closely monitor the health of the 8,000 to 9,000 pigs on farms across the state and to step up "bio-security" measures.

Most concerns focus on human-to-human spread; the disease cannot be contracted by eating pork, said Anne Fitzgerald, agriculture department spokeswoman.

In Brandywine Hundred, Happy Harry's pharmacy manager Jason Winward said Monday that the disease plainly has customers worried.

"We completely sold out of masks over the weekend. We usually don't stock that many anyway," Winward said. "Obviously, we weren't ahead of the game on this one. Every 15 or 20 minutes we have someone going back to the pharmacy to ask if we have any masks for sale. We don't get our next order in until Wednesday or Thursday."