It finally made it to the central valley. This will be a hot bed of infectionm when all is said and done, as this is the destination for the migrant workers. The trail up through San Diego, Imperial valley, Palm springs is just the flu migrating as the workers come back to the valley to harvest the vast amount of crops grown here. You should start to see it in Bakersfield, then Fresno, and in about two months, all hell will break lose here. WASH YOUR fruit, produce, as it is being handled by the very same workes, this bug has attached to.
Lucky me, I was at one of the busiest hispanic stores in Tulare last Wednesday, for work. I wonder if it was floating around there. Time will tell.
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link to www.fresnobee.com]
Tulare County officials on Wednesday closed an elementary school following the central San Joaquin Valley's first suspected case of swine flu and declared a local emergency to fight the virus.
The emergency declaration was only to qualify for state medical supplies such as masks, health officials said. "The last thing we want to do is create some panic state here," said Ray Bullick, Tulare County's director of health services.
Nevertheless, signs that the virus was gaining a foothold in the Valley caused tremors. Hospitals tightened visitation rules, schools washed down tables and bus handrails -- and officials worried about the flu's potential effect on upcoming elections.
Distraught parents swarmed Mountain View Elementary in southeast Visalia on Wednesday to pick up their children after the Tulare County Division of Health Services recommended the 659-pupil school be closed at least through Friday and possibly to the end of next week.
The closing was recommended after two kindergartners were diagnosed with flulike symptoms. Laboratory tests show one is likely Tulare County's first swine flu patient, county health officials said.
Both students are recovering and have not needed hospitalization, said Doug Bartsch, Visalia Unified's area administrator for elementary schools.
The school closure was one of several statewide. Valley school officials said parents should expect more closures in coming weeks.
Under new guidelines from the California Department of Public Health, health officers should consider closing a school for seven days after a confirmed case or highly suspicious case of swine flu. County health officers have the authority to order schools closed and public events canceled for the public's health.
Mark Horton, state health officer, said school closures are a new strategy by the state to fight the virus's spread. On Wednesday, California had 14 confirmed and 29 probable cases of swine flu.
Six people have been hospitalized in the state with complications. But Horton said he hesitated to say the infection was becoming more virulent. "We fully expect to see continued cases and fully expect a greater scope and range of severity," he said.
Horton said the swine flu develops like a regular, seasonal flu bug, but can be more dangerous, requiring drastic measures -- such as school closures -- because people have never been exposed to the virus and haven't developed immunity.
Dr. Karen Haught, health officer for Tulare County, said she was expecting a shipment Wednesday night from the state of 8,000 doses of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug that combats swine flu. The doses will be available to indigent patients.
It was unclear how much of the antiviral would be available in pharmacies for people with private insurance. Some small pharmacies in Fresno said they were out of the drug and had been told it would be hard to get more soon.
But a spokesman for Rite Aid said that the drugstore chain has ample supplies of Tamiflu.
Tulare County health officials recommended the closure of Mountain View Elementary after learning a kindergarten boy, who attended school Tuesday, had flu symptoms.
The boy became ill last weekend.
School officials said they learned late Tuesday that a kindergarten girl had been identified as the county's first probable case of swine flu.
The two sick children were in the same kindergarten class. School officials said they believe the girl contracted the flu when her family recently traveled to Los Angeles and had contact with relatives visiting from Mexico.
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