Georgia health officials scale back swine flu testing

Even as more cases of swine flu emerge in Georgia, state health officials on Thursday said they are cutting back on the amount of testing for the virus.

State labs will generally limit testing to people hospitalized with symptoms of swine flu, said Elizabeth Ford, director of the state Division of Public Health.

Officials said they do not have the resources to test every suspected case in the state, and they need to focus on tracking more serious cases to help determine whether the virus, which has shown generally mild symptoms, becomes more virulent.

While no new confirmed cases were announced Thursday, Ford said the state has four more probable cases: two 13-year-old Henry County boys; a 6-year-old Henry boy; and an 8-year-old Fayette County boy.

Georgia currently has four confirmed cases of swine flu and eight probable cases.

Ford would not say whether the three new probable cases in Henry County are associated with the Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy, which reopened Thursday after being closed following the emergence of a confirmed case there. The school has a another boy among probable cases announced Wednesday.

The change in testing criteria, announced during a media conference, set off a flurry of questions from reporters on the state’s ability to still track the spread of the new flu.

But Susan Lance, senior director of the state Office of Protection and Safety, said people should just assume that the virus is widespread in the state and take precautions accordingly, including making sure to wash hands and to keep sick children home from school.The new testing criteria follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lance said the state would be able to track any general spread of the virus through a system of in which 79 physicians, colleges and other medical providers report cases.

The swine flu virus continues to spread more and more so between people here in the U.S. A U.S. health official said only about 10 percent of the Americans who got swine flu had traveled to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there. Most were infected with the virus in the U.S.

There are 896 confirmed cases of swine flu in 43 states, including Georgia, officials said.

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu continues to increase, but federal health officials credit much of that to less of a backlog of pending tests.

Dr. Richard Besser, the interim head of the CDC, said investigators are not seeing evidence that the virus is “petering out.”

Also on Thursday, a study done by CDC scientists and released by the New England Journal of Medicine detailed chronic health problems associated with the two U.S. deaths from swine flu.

A Mexican toddler who died during a visit to Texas suffered from chronic muscle weakness, a heart defect, a swallowing problem and lack of oxygen. A 33-year-old Texas woman had asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and a skin condition, and she was 35 weeks pregnant.

When Eagle’s Landing reopened Thursday morning after a thorough cleaning, the “vast majority” of students returned and it was “business as usual,” said Chuck Gilliam, assistant head of school.

Lucresha Pearce kept her child home after hearing that a another student likely had swine flu.

“I didn’t want to risk the chance of her getting the flu,” said Pearce, who has another 5-year-old girl at home. “I’m pretty sure it’s safe now, but I still didn’t want to risk it.”

Gina Blackaby, picking up her three kids from Eagle’s Landing, said, “I’m trusting right now that the CDC and the public health [officials] are making good decisions and doing a good job keeping tabs on this.”

—Staff writer Rhonda Cook and The Associated Press contributed to this report.