California Swine Flu Update: Battling Flu Pandemic

The concerns over a swine flu pandemic continue to shake the world. There are now confirmed cases in Canada, Israel, France, New Zealand, South Korea and Costa Rica. In the United States swine flu cases have grown to 91confirmed cases in 10 states. Of which, 21 cases are attributed to California up from just 11 on April 27th. In addition, the United States saw its first fatality from the disease on Wednesday April 29th – a two year old child in Texas who was visiting from Mexico. Experts expect the numbers to continue to grow.

Governor Schwarzenegger and State health officials are aggressively working to address the real possibility of a rapidly growing pandemic which could cripple the California tourist economy, shut down schools, businesses, and the government. They have implemented a number of action steps to protect the citizens and the state of California. The action steps taken so far include:

• Declaring California a state of emergency
• Activating joint emergency operations system
• Deploying swine flu experts to Southern California
• Communicating closely with Public Health Officials in Mexico
• Stepping up cleanliness and sanitation at airports which receive large numbers of daily flights from Mexico such as LAX and SFO.

California State health officials have not yet enacted any border restrictions due to the swine flu outbreak. However, Governor Schwarzenegger has advised all Californians to take common precautions such as staying home when ill and regularly washing hands.

So far, no California schools have been closed in reaction to the swine flu pandemic scare. Jack O’Connell, California’s School Superintendent, said that the state school system is monitoring the swine flu outbreaks and will take additional action as warranted. "We want to take every precaution. We are monitoring. We are watching," O'Connell said.

Reported by Andee Nast. She can be reached at andeen@charter.net