Swine flu case reported in Moultrie; Southwest Ga. total at 5

MOULTRIE — The first Colquitt County case of the H1N1 influenza virus was confirmed Wednesday in a 4-month-old girl, the Southwest Georgia Health District said.

That case and a second confirmed Wednesday in Thomas County brings the total infections of the pandemic flu to five in the district, district health Director Jacqueline Grant said.

In response Colquitt Regional Medical Center activated part of its swine flu response plan by tightening patient visitation.

“The number of actual cases is thought to be higher,” Grant said. “Since we are no longer testing to determine if H1N1 is spreading but rather to monitor how severe it is, it is very likely that many infections are going uncounted.”

The Colquitt County case marks the first confirmation that the pandemic has pushed beyond Thomas County, where the district’s first three cases were reported. A 21-year-old man has been identified as the fourth and most recent Thomas County H1N1 patient.

Statewide, the number of pandemic H1N1 cases had climbed to 78 as of Tuesday. No fatalities have been attributed to it in Georgia.

The addition of two more confirmed cases in Southwest Health District will change neither the level of alertness nor the type of response, and it is not cause for alarm, Grant said.

“We have been expecting this,” Grant said. “What we are seeing here is the same pattern that has emerged in Georgia and the United States. All U.S. states and more than 70 countries worldwide have reported pandemic H1N1 activity.”

At CRMC, the stricter enforcement of the 9 a.m.-9 p.m. visitation hours will require all visitors to sign in at the main information desk, said Gary Boley, CRMC’s director of marketing. Only two visitors will be allowed to a patient at a time.

In addition, no children will be permitted to visit patients, and parents are discouraged from bringing them to visit. Any children brought to the hospital will have to wait in the lobby while adults visit patients, Boley said.

“It would really be best if they don’t bring them at all,” he said.

The National Centers of Disease Control and Prevention is emphasizing that since every case of pandemic H1N1 is not being reported or tracked, the actual number of cases far outstrips the reported figure. According to the CDC, there have been at least a million cases of this new virus in the U.S. so far this year, Grant said.

On June 11, Grant said, the World Health Organization declared the disease had reached Pandemic Phase 6 — a full-blown pandemic — based on the geographic spread of the virus. In terms of severity, however, the pandemic has been a mild one.

“We are thankful that the majority of those who contract pandemic H1N1 are recovering at home without requiring hospitalization,” Grant said. “However, that could change. Viruses routinely undergo mutation. Sometimes they comingle and exchange genetic material. Under such scenarios, the infection could cause more severe illnesses.”

There have been precedents for that in past pandemics, Grant said.

“During the deadly 1918 Pandemic, the first wave, which hit in the spring, was mild,” Grant said. “But the disease roared back in a more virulent form in the fall.”

Authorities are closely monitoring what the pandemic is doing now in the Southern Hemisphere, where the annual flu season is under way.

“What happens there may give us an idea of what to expect here this fall with seasonal flu,” Grant said. “We hope a vaccine will be available by then, but there is no guarantee.”

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