Guidelines for swine flu loosened

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 8, 2009 - Page: 12A

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State and federal officials scaled back their response to swine flu Thursday after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidelines and is now recommending that most people with mild flu symptoms no longer need to see a doctor.

Instead, the CDC and state health officials are recommending that only people in the hospital, young children, older adults and those with underlying illnesses should be given the anti-viral medications Tamiflu and Relenza, according to a state Department of Health and Hospitals news release.

Specialized testing and antiviral treatments do not have much impact on the course of recovery, DHH said.

Those at high risk are: children under age 5 (especially those under age 2), adults ages 65 and older, pregnant women, residents in nursing homes, and people with chronic illnesses.

“If your symptoms are mild and you are not in one of the high-risk categories, then you should stay home and try to recuperate with rest and fluids,” said Dr. Jimmy Guidry, the state’s health officer.

Guidry cautioned that people should still seek medical attention for symptoms “they would normally call their doctor for.”

Guidry said he doesn’t want people to ask to be tested for swine flu “if they are simply curious.”

There are seven confirmed cases of swine flu in Louisiana.

One more suspected case of swine flu was found Thursday in Louisiana, bringing the total to 35 suspected cases, with samples from those cases sent to the CDC for confirmation.

None of those cases has been tested by the CDC so far, Rene Milligan, a DHH spokesman, said.

“We don’t know when the results will come back,” Milligan said. “The CDC has been overwhelmed with samples from all over the U.S., so there’s a huge backlog.”

But Louisiana might be closer to getting a quicker turnover in test results after the state borrowed a piece of equipment — known as an “analyzer” — that will enable the state to do its own testing for H1NI virus, or swine flu, Milligan said.

But the machine has to be validated and the people who will use it have to be trained before testing can begin in Louisiana, Milligan said.