As of Sunday, there are six reported cases of swine flu in Pima County.
Four cases were found on the Tohono O’odham reservation, with two of the reported cases being middle school children, according to Patti Woodcock, Pima County Health Department’s community relations manager.
“”All of the cases have recovered or are in the process of recovering; none were hospitalized,”” she said. “”We’ll start talking to their families to see if anyone else is getting sick and we’ll just continue to monitor.””
Arizona officials received news Saturday that 13 new cases of the flu, now being called N1H1, had been confirmed across the state, according to the Associated Press. Previously, the state had just four confirmed swine flu cases, all in Maricopa County.
As for the schools the children attended, Woodcock said the health department is not recommending school closures.
She said this flu is behaving like the seasonal flu and people should continue to do the same things they would normally do during flu season.
“”Stay home, drink lots of fluids, take some Tylenol, eat chicken soup,”” she said. “”All those things Mom did for you when you didn’t feel good.””
UA officials released a statement Friday saying that they are continuing to monitor the situation and are taking necessary precautions in the event that a case is found on campus.
Paul Allvin, associate vice president for university communications, said the university is making sure all of the detergents and soaps used to clean the public bathrooms are extra-strength.
“”The World Health Organization says soap and washing your hands is the most important way to keep this from spreading,”” Allvin said. “”If we know we are paying extra attention to keeping things clean that we touch around campus, that’s a good deterrent.””
According to the World Health Organization, as of Sunday, there are 506 confirmed cases of swine flu in Mexico with 19 confirmed deaths. Worldwide, 18 countries have reported infections.
Woodcock said no one should be worried about this.
“”It’s just like what we deal with when we see regular flu in the wintertime,”” she said. “”It’s important that people make a plan on what they are going to do if someone in their family gets sick, it’s those kinds of things where you make your own personal preparedness plan.””
