JG-TC.com > News > County has first report of swine flu

TODAY'S HEADLINES

SPECIAL SECTION

ONLINE POLL

ONLINE EXTRAS

Shop Smart, Shop Local

SITE TOOLS

OTHER LINKS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, June 26, 2009 10:20 PM CDT
County has first report of swine flu
Victim recovers, poses no threat of contagion

By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com

CHARLESTON — The person who contracted Coles County’s first confirmed case of the swine flu has recovered and isn’t a threat to spread the disease, a county health official said Friday.

There was no indication how the person was infected with the flu, also called H1N1, according to Dan Stretch, Coles County Health Department environmental health director. He said the person did not report traveling to Mexico, where the disease is prevalent.

Stretch would only identify the infected person as a Coles County resident, an adult but not elderly.

The health department has located people with whom the infected person was in contact while ill with the flu and no one else contracted the disease, Stretch also said. The department considers the case closed, he added.

The infected person felt ill for two days around the first of the month before going to a local medical clinic where the swine flu case was discovered, Stretch said. The person had only mild symptoms of fever, congestion and general weakness and wasn’t hospitalized, he said.

A news release issued by the health department announcing the swine flu case said most people in Illinois who contracted the disease have not become seriously ill. Though reported cases of the disease peaked a few months ago, it continues to circulate in the state and nation and throughout much of the world, officials said.

People should continue to take precautions to help prevent spread of the disease, according to the health department statement. Those include proper and frequent hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes and staying home when sick.

No other county in the area has reported a case of the H1N1 flu.

The Illinois Department of Public Health says swine flu cases have been reported in 28 counties with 2,875 confirmed or probable cases. There have been 12 deaths in the state.

More information on swine flu is available by calling the health department at 348-0530 or online at www.co.coles.il.us/cchd, www.ready.illinois.gov or www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/.

Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.

Add your comments

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Not already registered?
Then click Here.

Comment policy:

JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.

In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.

We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.

No comment may contain:

* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.

If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.

coonbug wrote on Jun 27, 2009 9:23 AM:

" While I appreciate Dan Stretch, Coles County Health Department director's reasoning, I feel it is his responsibility to allow those in the City of which this person lived in to know that it was THEIR city that the flu was found to be in.

Hiding that fact is no different than having the board of education not tell parents what school is infected, or even what room in what school was infected.

How can we protect ourselves if you hide things for the sake of not hurting a city/town for political/economic reasons? "

acidburn wrote on Jun 27, 2009 11:50 AM:

" Might have been nice to know someone in Coles County had the sickness while they actually had it, so people could have taken precautions with children and the elderly. Nice job of Hush Up there Dan. "

kamfong wrote on Jun 27, 2009 9:40 PM:

" I agree Cid,awful lotta MUM going on around here lately huh. "

Harry Potter wrote on Jun 29, 2009 1:13 PM:

" Hey, I'm disappointed, from the headline I thought this thread was about Sarah Palin. (with apologies to red,white, blue) "

Becky wrote on Jun 29, 2009 1:32 PM:

" For the thousanth time, it's NOT SWINE FLU!!! It's H1N1 flu and it's not nearly as dangerous as Swine Flu. It's not nearly as deadly ad the Asian flu strains even. Why all the hype? Any influenza strain has the potential to kill it's lesser healthy victims. What is making this one so popular? Oh yeah, the MSM. Silly me. Let's all freak out now and sell, sell, sell this news! "