More Probable Cases Discovered

San Mateo County has its first two probable cases of swine flu, and Solano County has one now also. The Solano case is a 50-year-old man from Vacaville.
  KCBS Team Coverage: Swine Flu in the Bay Area

There are two cases in Marin, and seven more probable cases in Santa Clara County. Those bring the Bay Area's total number of probable cases to 12, with none of these cases being confirmed yet by the state and the CDC.

Statewide, the confirmed number remains 14. Nationally, that number is over 100 now, it stands at 109, but acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser says it's time to stop dwelling on the numbers so much, especially given the conflicts between what's reported by local, state and federal officials.

"In the future we may move away from case updates because as we see more cases, and more suspect cases, the numbers become a little murkier and we'll focus more on where things are occurring and what that tells us about the spread of the infection," said Besser.

What we know so far is that it's spreading nationwide now, but still, most people are simply getting a mild case of the flu. There is no need for them to go to the hospital, and there's still been only one death, of a toddler from Mexico who had traveled to Texas.

The San Francisco Archdiocese is considering altering communion this weekend, meaning that they would just hand parishioners wafers, not put them in people's mouths, and skip the sharing of the cup of wine.
 

The May 1st immigration march scheduled for Friday in San Jose, could be cancelled if ordered by the Santa Clara County Health Dept.

So far, County Health Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib stresses they have not made any final decisions about canceling any large gatherings. He does advise people to stay home from the march if they’re feeling sick.

Hospitals Prepare for the Worst

At John Muir Medical Center in Concord they have erected a tent, a sort of “MASH unit” in the parking lot in front of the hospital. It’s a way for the center to deal with patients seeking treatment for this new strain of flu, without letting them in the front doors where they could infect others.

”I think it’s a great idea to pre-screen everyone before they come in,” said one woman, a stenographer who works at John Muir.

The John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek has also set up a tent, as have several other Bay Area hospitals. They keep saying it over and over again; the best way to avoid getting swine flu is to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds each time. In this KCBS Cover Story reporter Doug Sovern discovers that's an awful lot of hand washing.
KCBS Cover Story: Doug Sovern on Hand Washing Ditties
KCBS Expanded Coverage: Swine Flu

Suspected Cases Close Local Schools

Meanwhile, two schools have closed for a week because of suspected swine flu illnesses. They include Highlands Elementary in Pittsburg and Branham High School in San Jose.

KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports: Closure of Branham High
KCBS’ Holly Quan Reports: Closure of Highlands School

Students at Marina Vista Elementary in Pittsburg also have developed flu-like symptoms, which county health officials are investigating. That has brought a deluge of calls to community clinics.

KCBS' Dave Padilla: Marina Vista Elementary School

The World Health Organization said confirmed swine flu cases rose to 257 worldwide Thursday and announced it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs.

The global body said the number of confirmed cases in Mexico rose to 97 from 26, with seven deaths. The WHO confirmed tally from the United States now stands at 109, with one death.

  KCBS’ Joe Rogers Reports From Mexico

Other confirmed cases include 19 in Canada, 13 in Spain, eight in Britain, three each in Germany and New Zealand, two in Israel and one each in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told reporters in Geneva that at least one of the Spanish cases involved a person who had not traveled to Mexico. Spanish officials said that was a man who apparently got the virus from his girlfriend, who recently returned from Mexico.

Thompson said the flu name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," he said.

On Wednesday, Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs as precaution, even though experts said swine flu is not spread by eating pork.

WHO raised the pandemic flu alert to phase 5 on Wednesday, one step away from the highest level indicating a global outbreak. WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said Thursday there were no indications in the past day that would prompt the U.N. body to raise the alert further.

To move from pandemic alert level 5 to level 6 means that WHO believes there is evidence of big outbreaks in at least two world regions and a pandemic is under way.

(MGO)