Updated: In less than a month, the number of confirmed swine flu cases in Fort Bend County has shot up by more than 300% – from 11 on May 21 to 48 as of June 18.
The increase in confirmed cases doesn’t necessarily reflect a new wave of the pandemic flu moving through the county, however, county Health & Human Services Department Deputy Director Kaye Reynolds said new instances of the disease continue to surface.
In May, there were 316 “suspected” cases of swine flu in Fort Bend County, also referred to as H1N1 flu. Patients suspected of having the disease have reported a fever of more than 100 degrees as well as a cough and sore throat, according to the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management.
As of today, 311 suspected cases still are listed in Fort Bend County, and one “probable” case involving an unidentified patient with an “unsubtypeable type A virus,” according to the OEM’s H1N1 “Swine Flue” Information web page.
An overwhelmed regional laboratory in Houston had resulted in a backlog of patients awaiting test results to determine if they have indeed contracted swine flu. That backlog is represented in the large number of suspected but as yet undetermined swine flu cases, but Reynolds said results are coming more quickly now, and some private labs also have been able to test as well..
Meanwhile, statistics as of Thursday from the Texas Department of State Health Services shows 2,354 confirmed cases of swine flu statewide.
Fort Bend is not among the counties with the greatest number of cases. Those include No. 1 Hidalgo, with 534 cases; Cameron, with 282; El Paso, with 198; Coryell, with 195; and adjacent Harris County, with 171 confirmed cases.
On June 11, the World Health Organization raised swine flu to a “Phase 6″ flue pandemic alert, saying “on the basis of available evidence and expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.”
Reynolds said last month officials had hoped swine flu incidents would dwindle during the hot summer months. But while the volume of new cases has slowed, it hasn’t stopped like more common flu. That’s because the population still has built no resistance to the new strain, she said Thursday.
“We hope it will go away before fall,” Reynolds said. “We expect it to come back in the fall.”
By: Bob Dunn on Thu, Jun 18, 2009
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