Swine Flu MichiganHealth officials Monday suggested ways to avoid swine flu after a 34-year-old Livingston County woman who recently vacationed in Texas was recovering at home with the state's first suspected case.
"This probable case is not a cause for alarm, but we do want people to be cautious," said Dr. Greg Holzman, chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
He told people to cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing, wash their hands frequently, avoid touching their eyes, nose or mouth, and -- if sick -- stay home from work and school.
The woman, whose name and hometown were not released, lives with her husband and their young child in Livingston County, which is 45 miles northwest of Detroit. She returned Saturday from a trip to Texas and was treated for flu-like symptoms Sunday at an urgent care center.
The husband and child were not showing signs of symptoms. The family drove to Texas and back for the two-week vacation, visiting San Antonio and near the Mexican border. The woman was instructed to stay home until further notice.
Livingston County health officials were relieved the woman did not come into contact with nearly as many people as she would have if she had traveled by plane or bus.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the U.S. stood at 41. However, most of those sickened in the U.S. have recovered or are recovering.
The strain is suspected of killing more than 100 people in Mexico, the outbreak's epicenter where many of the U.S. victims had visited.
Michigan sent the woman's lab result to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to see if it tests positive for the virus. Results are expected Tuesday or Wednesday. The state's lab found the woman's influenza A strain was non-typeable, causing concern it is swine flu.
The state, which has 1 million doses of Tamiflu to treat the flu, has been allocated another 250,000 doses by the CDC as a precautionary measure, Holzman said.
News of the outbreak has led to a significant uptick in sales of surgical masks at a Detroit-area medical supply chain in the last week, though stores elsewhere in Michigan did not see an increase.
"Members of the public are calling wanting them," said Ruthanne Rejc, director of purchasing for Binson's Home Health Care Centers, which has six stores in the Detroit area and two in Florida.
The N95 respirator mask has more filters to protect against airborne viruses than a regular surgical mask, Rejc said.
She expects the run on masks to intensify as the flu outbreak gets more news coverage. She said sales of protective respiratory masks spiked during past scares, when manufacturers could not keep up with demand.
Airline workers and others were employing "passive observation" of passengers arriving to Detroit Metropolitan Airport from Mexico, airport spokesman Mike Conway said Monday. Passengers likely would not be aware of the increase in observation unless they were stopped by airport staff, he said.
"Flight crews are trained to note anyone hacking, coughing or sneezing," Conway said. "Our firefighters will meet them at the gate and take them to the hospital if they need it. Customs and border protection are trained to watch out for things. Everybody knows what their role is."
Mechanisms also were in place to notify passengers sitting near someone who tests positive for the virus.
"You do everything you can, whatever role we can play to slow down the spread," Conway said.
Swine flu is spread between people. Symptoms include coughing, fever, fatigue, sore throat, chills, headaches, body aches, diarrhea and vomiting.
Dr. Keith Kaye, an expert in infectious diseases and infection control at the Detroit Medical Center, said swine flu is treatable with standard drugs used to combat influenza A such as Tamiflu and Relenza.
"This has generally been pretty mild in the U.S.," he said.
Kaye said people with flu-like symptoms should not worry they have swine flu unless they have traveled to Mexico, San Diego or near the Texas-Mexico border in the week before getting sick, or have been exposed to people with known or highly suspected cases of swine flu.
"We are concerned about the flooding of our labs and our emergency rooms with folks who might not need medical attention," Kaye said.
Michigan State University and other colleges were reviewing current and ongoing study abroad programs, but no decisions about whether to cancel or alter them had been made.
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