By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE — No swine flu has been found in Washington state , but authorities are keeping a close watch for any possible cases and for people with the disease entering the state.
Local health agencies, doctors, hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers were asked to report all Type A flu cases, state Health Department spokesman Tim Church said today.
Swine flu is Type A, but not all Type A is swine flu.
Church said the state will check any confirmed cases of Type A flu and if swine flu cannot be ruled out, a sample will be sent to the Centers for Disease Control. Washington state’s epidemiology laboratory is not equipped to test for the recently identified flu strain.
Overall, Church said there have not been any more cases of flu in Washington than is normal for this time of year, when flu is usually at a low level.
Swine flu virus was suspected in at least 149 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak. Forty cases, none fatal, have been confirmed in the United States, as well as six in Canada and one in Spain.
There has been no special alert or passenger screening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, airport spokesman Perry Cooper said. The airport has a year-round quarantine area that can hold a few hundred people, but it has been used only once and that was to screen a few people for avian flu some time ago.
Alaska Airlines has three flights to Seattle daily from the west coast of Mexico, all in areas where swine flu has not been reported, and the next Aeromexico flight from Mexico City is not scheduled to arrive until Wednesday.
Passengers at Sea-Tac on Monday had varying responses to the swine flu outbreak.
“It didn’t even cross our minds,” said Sean Whiting, 36, visiting from Long Beach, Calif.
Melvin and Vicki Herndon, returning from a vacation in Southern California, said they took precautions that included frequent hand washing and keeping their hands away from faces.
Mike McDonnell, 45, of Long Beach, a business traveler, said he wasn’t concerned but understood why others were taking precautions.
“Society in general has to be very conservative when it comes to this stuff,” McDonnell said.
Local officials said they were ready if the outbreak reached the state.
Marcia Patrick, director of infection prevention and control for MultiCare Health System, which runs a number of hospitals in King and Pierce Counties, told The News Tribune of Tacoma that all hospitals in the area use the same regimen for isolating any cases that might be reported.
“With our routine planning, routine activities, we are doing the same things we always do,” Patrick said, “and those good relationships beforehand make all the difference in the world.”
Dennis Klukan, Yakima Health District administrator, said his agency had gotten no reports of swine flu-like symptoms. But he said that as a precaution, an emergency operations center was open and medical practitioners have been told to be on the lookout.
“We’re stepping up our monitoring,” Klukan said.
Similar emergency planning was being done in Vancouver, Wash.
“This is exactly what we’ve been planning for, and it’s rolling out how we thought,” said John Wiesman, Clark County public health director. “It’s probably just a matter of time before we have a case.”
