By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
June 19, 2009
Normally, flu season is long gone by the time kids head off for camp and families hit the road for vacation. But this year, swine flu — or the H1N1 virus — is still hanging around.
Briefing reporters in Atlanta, Dr. Dan Jernigan, Deputy Director of the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there is still H1N1 activity in 17 states, with most of the new cases clustered in northeast states.
"The U.S. will likely continue to see influenza activity through the summer, and at this point we're anticipating that we will see the novel H1N1 continue with activity probably all the way into our flu season in the fall and winter," Jernigan said.
Jernigan said there have now been more than 17,800 H1N1 cases in the U.S. since the outbreak began. Around 1,600 people have been hospitalized and 44 that have died.
"As we have been saying all along, these numbers are likely an underestimate of the number of cases that are out there," Jernigan said. "There are some surveys that indicate that the amount of disease in the areas that are having activity with H1N1 is perhaps around seven percent of the population reporting symptoms due to influenza-like illness."
The virus continues to impact mostly younger people. So far, the CDC says it is not causing significant illness and death in the elderly like health officials would see with seasonal influenza.
"The symptoms that are being reported are consistent with influenza, that being predominantly fever, cough, some shortness of breath, fatigue and chills," Jernigan said.
While schools were a prime transmission point of the virus, the CDC is concerned that summer camps have now taken on that role.
"So far there are a number of outbreaks that have been identified in different states, affecting mostly children," Jernigan said. "This is not unexpected, unfortunately, and it follows a pattern we saw with the disease in children in schools over the past few months."
The CDC has posted guidance for summer camp H1N1 disease avoidance on its website. Jernigan said the instructions are mostly common sense — if your child is ill, they should not go to camp until seven days after their onset of their illness, or four days after their illness stops.
"We ask for camp staff to look for influenza-like symptoms in children and separate those children," he said.
The CDC is also advising that aspirin not be used to treat children with influenza-like illness because of complications that can occur.
