State monitoring swine flu threat

Gov. Bobby Jindal is calling for Louisiana citizens to take preventative measures to stay ahead of the swine flu outbreak, a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that has sickened 20 people in the United States and hundreds more in Mexico.

At a press conference Saturday, Jindal detailed the actions the state is taking in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading to Louisiana.

“We have been working here to get ahead of this virus,” he said. “GOHSEP (Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness) has activated their Crisis Action Team to monitor the national trends on this and any reported cases in Louisiana.”

Jindal acknowledged that the state began taking action Friday even though there have been no confirmed cases of swine flu.

On Friday, Department of Health and Hospitals officials notified hospitals and physicians through the state’s Health Alert Network, and activated a statewide surveillance system of “sentinel physicians” – a group of private doctors who volunteer to serve as a “front line” of detection to assist in any public health or infectious disease investigation, Jindal explained in a release.

Common preventions – covering one’s mouth when coughing or sneezing and washing one’s hands after – can help slow the spread.

“If you get sick with influenza, the Centers for Disease Control recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them,” the governor said.

Jindal said the state has 370,443 Tamiflu treatment courses and 94,360 Relenza treatment courses stockpiled in the state. In addition, there are another 669,000 courses earmarked for Louisiana in the national stockpile.

The CDC is offering the state 25 percent of that stockpile, which would be shipped in the next seven days.

DHH officials have cautioned clinicians to consider the possibility of swine influenza virus infections in patients showing respiratory illness and fever and urged them to review CDC guidelines for identification and treatment.

Jindal’s press conference was in response to the federal government declaring a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the disease.

So far, cases have been discovered in California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas in addition to the cases discovered in Mexico.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration was a precautionary measure and not a sign that the outbreak is worsening.

“Really, that’s what we’re doing right now, preparing the environment where we really don’t know ultimately what the size of seriousness of this outbreak is going to be,” she said.

For more information on the swine flu visit www.flula.com.

The Associated Press contributed to portions of this article.