Kevin Myrick, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
Two cases of the H1N1 Influenza A flu virus, also known as swine flu, were reported in the Bartow County area over the summer.
A 9-year-old girl and an 18-year-old male were both confirmed to have the virus, according to Northwest Georgia Public Health spokesman Logan Boss.
The case of the 9-year-old originally presented at an emergency care facility in Floyd County where the test was done on July 13. Since the girl was from the Bartow County area, her case is included in numbers for that county, according to Boss.
Boss confirmed the girl became ill while visiting a summer camp in Alabama.
“What we're seeing this summer is a lot of Swine Flu outbreaks in residential and day camps,” Boss said.
The 18-year-old was tested in a facility in Cartersville on June 24. Both cases were confirmed by the Georgia Public Health Lab in Decatur. Neither were hospitalized for their symptoms.
So far, there have only been four cases in the Northwest Georgia Public Health District, including two in Paulding County and these two case in Bartow since confirmed cases began being tracked in April. Boss added swine flu is not likely going to disappear over the next months.
“It will almost certainly be pervasive, and people need to get ready for a lot more swine flu cases,” Boss said. “It looks very mild so far, but it could get worse. People must prepare for the possibility that pandemic H1N1 could become more severe.”
Though a number of companies are currently working on a vaccine, Boss said they would not likely be ready until October and vaccinations would take place in groups with higher risk of contracting H1N1. Specifically, those groups would include students in grades 1 through 12 and for teachers.
“Northwest Georgia Public Health is already gearing up to helping to administer vaccinations to targeted groups,” Boss said.
Last week, Boss discussed three possible scenarios for swine flu in the area. The first, which he described as the “no big deal” scenario, would involve a mild, mostly unnoticed flu season for the H1N1 virus.
A grimmer scenario — and one that public health officials are preparing for — would be a “serious but manageable” outbreak of swine flu in Northwest Georgia.
“It could turn out to be comparable to pandemic flu,” he said.
The “nightmare scenario” would be a massive outbreak of a mutated strain the flu, which would make a vaccination useless, he said.
“That's the ultimate pandemic nightmare. It’s almost too awful to prepare for,” he said. “We're worried about the third, planning for the second and hoping for the first to hap-pen.”
The state’s first death from swine flu was reported in Cobb County two weeks ago. The 43-year-old woman was reported to have underlying conditions that complicated her ability to fight the infection, which Boss said greatly contributes to deaths in swine flu cases. Statewide, only 223 cases have been reported, and because the criteria for reporting cases constantly changes, it makes statistics nearly insignificant, Boss said.
“Any case count you get is irrelevant, it’s just the tip of the ice burg,” he said.
Of the cases reported in Georgia, only 30 have been serious enough for those who have contracted H1N1 to be hospitalized.
