Several local television and radio stations are reporting the first suspected case of Swine Flu has struck the Memphis, TN area. Shelby County health officials, along with researchers from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital made the announcement during a morning news conference on Thursday.
The victim is a 12 year-old student at Incarnation Elementary School in Collierville, TN, a suburb of Memphis with a population of nearly 32,000.
Health Department officials are urging people who may have been in contact with the flu to stay home.
St. Jude researchers say a specimen from the victim tested positive for Influenza A. A sample will now be tested at a lab approved by the state health department or the Center For Disease Control to confirm the Swine Flu virus.
Unrelated to the reported case in Memphis, the World Health Organization has increased the Swine Flu threat to a “level five”, the highest alert level the organization has.
Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton says he has not put the county’s emergency action plan into effect as there is no indication that is needed at this time. Wharton says the county will closely monitor the situation and he expects there will be additional cases.
According to Wiki, “the 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as “Swine Flu” technically is not swine flu. It is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives from one strain of human influenza, one strain of avian influenza, and two separate strains of swine influenza.
The origins of this new strain are unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in swine. It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation.
The strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.”
