Georgia officials prepare for swine flu cases

As a national health official predicted the swine flu outbreak will likely cause deaths in the U.S., Georgia officials ramped up efforts Tuesday to prepare for cases here.

With the number of swine flu cases increasing in the United States, so is the level of anxiety among metro Atlantans. Some people are canceling trips to Mexico, which is considered the epicenter of the outbreak.

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John Spink/jspink@ajc.com

Kayla Drumgold (left) and her cousin Dana Jackson by the AirTran ticket counter at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Tuesday. They were heading home to Boston.

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Georgia health officials have ordered enough additional flu medicine from the federal stockpile to treat 325,000 people.

Georgia has yet to have a confirmed case of swine flu. And while the state already has 460,000 courses of antiviral flu medicine on hand, officials didn’t want to take chances.

“Right now I’m concerned, but not panicked,” said Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Ford, acting director of the state Division of Public Health.

Each course of antiviral includes 10 doses, enough to treat a single person. The antiviral is not a vaccine but a treatment intended to lessen the severity of the illness.

The state has already tested four people suspected of having swine flu, and the results were negative, officials said.

“We do expect more samples to come,” Ford said.

In the U.S., the number of confirmed cases jumped in a day from 42 to 64 cases Tuesday in five states. Dr. Richard Besser, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he expects the outbreak will cause deaths in the U.S. There are five people currently hospitalized in the U.S.

In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill Tuesday that gives him power to declare a “pandemic influenza” state of emergency, providing the state increased powers to deal with the illness.

Several local church groups have either canceled or are rethinking mission trips to Mexico. The country is a popular location for metro Atlanta churches to send teams that do everything from running medical clinics to holding vacation bible schools.

The Rev. Michael Dunbar of Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church in Social Circle cut a medical team trip short Tuesday in northeast Mexico.

“I’m in the airport in McAllen, Texas, and people in the airport are walking around with masks on,” Dunbar said.

Adventures In Missions, a Gainesville nonprofit that coordinates mission trips for a variety of Protestant churches, said their contacts in northeast Mexico are advising that media reports may be overplaying the fear.

“We have a group of 300 students who just returned from there, and they didn’t have any issues at all,” said Clint Bokelman, a director.

The nonprofit has 40 more trips lined up through the year and are not canceling, but paying close attention to guidelines posted by the CDC and the Mexican authorities.

Swine flu also put a slight wrinkle in Cupid’s plans.

Michael Thrasher and his fiance, Mary Beth, have been planning their wedding and honeymoon for several months. The couple, who will marry in Athens on Saturday, were looking forward to a romantic honeymoon on the Riviera Maya — until the swine flu outbreak. The couple’s new destination is the Dominican Republic.

The Atlanta-based Home Depot has restricted work travel to and from Mexico, and are monitoring whether staff should travel to U.S. states most affected by the flu.

— Staff writers Aaron Gould Sheinin, Rachel Tobin Ramos and Christopher Quinn contributed to this report.