Three Valley swine flu cases confirmed

HARLINGEN - A strain of swine flu that afflicted three Rio Grande Valley residents doesn't appear thus far to be any more deadly than seasonal influenza.

Two Starr County middle school students are recuperating at home from the virus, and a Cameron County man is receiving treatment in San Antonio.

A total of 16 cases have been confirmed in Texas, but none of them are in Hidalgo County.

The epicenter of the outbreak is in Mexico, where 160 deaths were reported after almost 2,500 became sick, but only 1,300 of the suspected swine flu patients remain hospitalized in the country.

Meanwhile, nearly 100 have been sickened in the United States, with only one reported death - a toddler from Mexico City who became ill in Brownsville and died Monday in a Houston-area hospital.

Most of the cases in the United States, including the ones in Texas, have been mild.

Federal health officials warned Wednesday that more deaths from the virus are likely, but local health authorities tempered some concerns that the swine flu was a more deadly form of influenza.

While there's still cause for concern mostly due to the relatively unknown nature of the virus, health officials said the virus may not be much more deadly than the seasonal flu that kills 36,000 people in the United States each year.

"What we're seeing looks like ordinary influenza," said Dr. Brian Smith, a regional director for the Texas Department of State Health Services, during a regional news conference Wednesday in Harlingen.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN

The pattern of the illness thus far is similar to what health officials see with seasonal flu, Smith said. Symptoms can range anywhere from minor to fatal.

With the worldwide death count rising, the World Health Organization raised its alert level to its highest point ever, stopping just short of calling the swine flu outbreak a pandemic.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on its Web site Wednesday that a more severe illness associated with the virus may be emerging in the United States. But officials continued to urge Valley residents to remain calm.

People who have flu-like symptoms should seek medical care and keep as isolated from the general public as possible, Smith said. The most important line of defense against the virus is practicing good hygiene.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said people should keep the three C's in mind to prevent the further spread of the virus: clean, cover and contain.

So far, school closures have been limited to those in the Rio Grande City school district and the Starr County campuses of South Texas College and the University of Texas-Pan American.

A Mercedes teacher who showed flu-like symptoms after giving birth was cleared for swine flu, said Walter Watson, superintendent of Mercedes schools. Her students at Travis Elementary School were also checked and cleared.

STARR COUNTY CASES

Two boys from Veterans Middle School in Rio Grande City were diagnosed with swine flu Friday. But health authorities said the students, who were kept home this week as a precaution, have been without symptoms for three to four days.

Aside from these two confirmed cases in Starr County, 200 to 300 others in the county reported flu-like symptoms, with about 70 to 75 diagnosed with ordinary type A influenza, said Jose Vasquez, a health spokesman for the county. Other cases of swine flu could pop up in Starr County but health officials have enough antiviral treatment to meet the needs of their people.

"The disease has been safely contained in its cluster and we hope that it will continue that way in Starr County," Vasquez said.

Rio Grande City schools Superintendent Roel Gonzalez said schools are currently set to re-open Monday but that they will re-evaluate that decision Friday.

"We're cleaning every surface, every bathroom and every wall," Vasquez said. "We're trying real hard to make sure every campus is spotless by the time they come back."

‘RELIEVED'

Myssie Cardenas-Barajas started feeling ill from flu-like symptoms a week ago, she said. The woman's biggest concern, though, was not for herself but rather that she might have exposed her already ailing mother to swine flu.

Cardenas-Barajas' husband and friends urged her to visit her doctor, she said. She learned Monday that she had indeed contracted some type of influenza.

The next day, a second visit to the doctor's office - now packed with others reporting flu-like symptoms - required more oral and nasal swabs, but she was relieved when the tests revealed she had ordinary, seasonal flu.

Cardenas-Barajas, who skipped her flu shot this year, was surviving Wednesday on doses of Vicks DayQuil and plenty of rest.

The symptoms were the same awful ones she has had during past bouts of flu, but this time she has the comfort of knowing it's an illness she has made it through before.

"It was a big relief for me to know it wasn't the swine flu," she said. "That's everybody's biggest fear is the unknown."

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Valley Morning Star staff writer Daisy Martinez can be reached at (956) 430-6281 and dmartinez@valleystar.com. Monitor staff writer Jared Janes can be reached at (956) 683-4424 and jjanes@ themonitor.com. Monitor staff writer Jeremy Roebuck can be reached at (956) 683-4437 jroebuck@ themonitor.com.