Source: http://www.caymannetnews.com/news-16030--1-1---.html
Cayman has swine flu
Published on Sunday, June 7, 2009
By Tad Stoner
tad@caymannetnews.com
The Public Health Department has recorded the Cayman Islands? first case of swine flu, a male primary school student at the First Baptist Christian School, although officials say the victim is only mildly ill and rapidly recovering.
Both health and school authorities agreed to close First Baptist School on Friday, while Principal Dr Linda Cross organised a 9:00 am to 11:30 am in-school clinic for concerned parents and children.
?We had about 55 people show up, and the main thing was that if anyone had flu symptoms for the last week or so, they would have gone for swabs,? Dr Cross said.
First Baptist Christian School has 87 children in kindergarten through Year 8 and another 150 students in its infant to age four ?Wee Care? programme.
?The parents were very gratified we contacted them and were very open with them,? Dr Cross said. ?Everyone was very cordial and very patient with the long lines.?
Citing patient confidentiality and a need for calm, both Medical Director of Health Dr Kiran Kumar, and Health Services Authority Medical Director Dr Greg Hoeksema declined to identify the victim, but said they had been shocked after learning the boy had attended school on Monday, 1 June against medical advice.
The boy, they said, had attended school on Monday, 25 May after returning from New York City, where he was exposed to the H1N1 ?swine flu? virus.
?He was okay on the 26th, but was in school and started to feel unwell on the 27th and the 28th,? Dr Kumar said. ?On the 29th, they brought him into the hospital, so for two days he was unwell and within the school.?
Despite medical advice that he remain home, however, the boy returned to school on 1 June.
?He was isolated from 29 May. I called the mother and told her not to send him to school. We were shocked to learn that this morning,? Dr Kumar said after a Friday-morning visit to First Baptist.
Dr Cross said she had not leaned known until Thursday that the boy had been in class on Monday, but said staff had sent him home in the afternoon. ?He was here about a half-day,? she said.
Because the student was only mildly affected, Dr Hoeksema said, doctors had elected not to treat him with Tamiflu vaccine, which is not a swine flu treatment and only reduces the more severe H1N1 symptoms
?Tamiflu is only effective within 48 hours of the symptoms anyway, said Dr Hoeksema, ?and if the victim is otherwise in good health, we let Mother Nature take her course. We don?t want to use Tamiflu unnecessarily because we don?t want the H1N1 virus to mutate and develop a resistance.?
The victim, he said, had nearly recovered after resting at home since Monday, but ?it?s possible he may have affected his classmates,? Dr Kumar said.
Meanwhile, two other potential victims, both isolated at home, had tested positive for infuenza ?A?, precursor to both standard seasonal flu and H1N1.
?One of the victims had travelled to the US,? Dr Kumar said, ?while the other had no travel history at all.? Both of their samples were sent on Friday morning to Trinidad?s Caribbean Epidemiology Centre for final testing.
Dr Hoeksema said the doctor, nurses and other medical staff at the First Baptist School clinic had taken 61 samples. At press time, 25 had been tested and one adult had proved positive for influenza ?A?.
Dr Kumar said that other recent testing, independent of First Baptist School, had revealed 31 positive results for flu, but none had been confirmed with ?swine flu?.
Cayman has swine flu
Published on Sunday, June 7, 2009
By Tad Stoner
tad@caymannetnews.com
The Public Health Department has recorded the Cayman Islands? first case of swine flu, a male primary school student at the First Baptist Christian School, although officials say the victim is only mildly ill and rapidly recovering.
Both health and school authorities agreed to close First Baptist School on Friday, while Principal Dr Linda Cross organised a 9:00 am to 11:30 am in-school clinic for concerned parents and children.
?We had about 55 people show up, and the main thing was that if anyone had flu symptoms for the last week or so, they would have gone for swabs,? Dr Cross said.
First Baptist Christian School has 87 children in kindergarten through Year 8 and another 150 students in its infant to age four ?Wee Care? programme.
?The parents were very gratified we contacted them and were very open with them,? Dr Cross said. ?Everyone was very cordial and very patient with the long lines.?
Citing patient confidentiality and a need for calm, both Medical Director of Health Dr Kiran Kumar, and Health Services Authority Medical Director Dr Greg Hoeksema declined to identify the victim, but said they had been shocked after learning the boy had attended school on Monday, 1 June against medical advice.
The boy, they said, had attended school on Monday, 25 May after returning from New York City, where he was exposed to the H1N1 ?swine flu? virus.
?He was okay on the 26th, but was in school and started to feel unwell on the 27th and the 28th,? Dr Kumar said. ?On the 29th, they brought him into the hospital, so for two days he was unwell and within the school.?
Despite medical advice that he remain home, however, the boy returned to school on 1 June.
?He was isolated from 29 May. I called the mother and told her not to send him to school. We were shocked to learn that this morning,? Dr Kumar said after a Friday-morning visit to First Baptist.
Dr Cross said she had not leaned known until Thursday that the boy had been in class on Monday, but said staff had sent him home in the afternoon. ?He was here about a half-day,? she said.
Because the student was only mildly affected, Dr Hoeksema said, doctors had elected not to treat him with Tamiflu vaccine, which is not a swine flu treatment and only reduces the more severe H1N1 symptoms
?Tamiflu is only effective within 48 hours of the symptoms anyway, said Dr Hoeksema, ?and if the victim is otherwise in good health, we let Mother Nature take her course. We don?t want to use Tamiflu unnecessarily because we don?t want the H1N1 virus to mutate and develop a resistance.?
The victim, he said, had nearly recovered after resting at home since Monday, but ?it?s possible he may have affected his classmates,? Dr Kumar said.
Meanwhile, two other potential victims, both isolated at home, had tested positive for infuenza ?A?, precursor to both standard seasonal flu and H1N1.
?One of the victims had travelled to the US,? Dr Kumar said, ?while the other had no travel history at all.? Both of their samples were sent on Friday morning to Trinidad?s Caribbean Epidemiology Centre for final testing.
Dr Hoeksema said the doctor, nurses and other medical staff at the First Baptist School clinic had taken 61 samples. At press time, 25 had been tested and one adult had proved positive for influenza ?A?.
Dr Kumar said that other recent testing, independent of First Baptist School, had revealed 31 positive results for flu, but none had been confirmed with ?swine flu?.
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