30 provinces report A/H1N1 flu patients

Today about H1N1 cases.

The medical watchdog warns that schools, residential areas and crowded places are the most vulnerable to the epidemic’s outbreak.

Tao Van San, Director of the Health Centre of Muong Nhe district, Dien Bien province, said that 91 cases of the disease were detected in the district’s boarding school from February 14-22. The provincial health sector took preventive measures to successfully contain the disease and pupils have resumed studies at school.

At a junior high school in Quy Nhon city, Binh Dinh province, five pupils tested positive for the epidemic. Previously, 28 pupils from the school showed A/H1N1 symptoms such as fever, sneezing and having runny nose.

In the face of an A/H1N1 outbreak, the Health Ministry warns that cold, humid weather is favourable for the development and contagion of A/H1N1 virus. Offices, schools and factories are recommended to closely monitor the health of workers and students to proactively curb the spread of the disease.

Seasonal Flu Vaccination Result in Higher Risk of Pandemic Flu Infection?

These article about seasonal flu vaccination.

Recent studies have suggested that vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine resulted in an apparent higher risk of infection with pandemic influenza H1N1 2009. Geoffry N. Mercer, of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and colleagues, constructed a simple mathematical model incorporating strain competition and a hypothesised temporary strain-transcending immunity to investigate this observation. The model assumes that seasonal vaccine has no effect on the risk of infection with pandemic influenza.

The researchers say that results of the model over a range of reproduction numbers and effective vaccination coverage confirm this apparent increased risk in the Northern, but not the Southern, hemisphere. This is due to unvaccinated individuals being more likely to be infected with seasonal influenza (if it is circulating) and developing hypothesised temporary immunity to the pandemic strain. Because vaccinated individuals are less likely to have been infected with seasonal influenza, they are less likely to have developed the hypothesised temporary immunity and are therefore more likely to be infected with pandemic influenza. If the reproduction number for pandemic influenza is increased, as it is for children, an increase in the apparent risk of seasonal vaccination is observed. The maximum apparent risk effect is found when seasonal vaccination coverage is in the range of 20 percent to 40 percent.

Mercer, et al. conclude that only when pandemic influenza is recently preceded by seasonal influenza circulation is there a modeled increased risk of pandemic influenza infection associated with prior receipt of seasonal vaccine. Their research was published in BMC Public Health.

H1N1 Vaccine Launched in Cameroon

Article about Cameroon launches huge H1N1 vaccine campaign.

The government says it only has a restricted amount of the vaccine from the WHO and is targeting population segments with the highest risks of astringent the H1N1 virus.

Dr.Robinson Mbu is director of the Family Health Department of Health says that 1.3 million doses of vaccine available for children 5 to 15 years, people over 65, women at least the fourth month of pregnancy, labor health and people with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, sickle cell anemia and HIV.

The nationwide vaccination effort follows a government announcement in October that 75 cases of H1N1 had been detected. The Ministry of Health says no deaths have been recorded. A swine flu pandemic killed tens of thousands across the world last year.

H1N1 is a contagious respiratory virus containing a combination of different influenza viruses endemic in pigs. Scientists say transmission from animals to humans is not common. They say it is not contracted by eating properly cooked pork, although people who often come in contact with swine may be more exposed to the virus.

It is spread among people when infected persons cough, sneeze or speak. People can also get infected by touching contaminated surfaces and objects. Within a day, they may be contagious, even before they begin to exhibit symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue. Health care practitioners say the resemblance to flu makes early detection a problem and can facilitate its rapid spread.

Last May, 35 African countries formally notified the WHO of a combined total of 18,500 confirmed cases of the flu and a death toll of 168. South Africa alone accounted for more than two-thirds of the cases.

As a preventive measure; Cameroon inoculated a thousand supporters of its soccer team travelling to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. But the effort was not enough to prevent infections.

The renewed effort to eradicate the disease is being carried out by hundreds of health workers at public hospitals across the country. Others are going house-to-house and school-to-school to ensure its success amid concerns that pockets of resistance may emerge.

Previous vaccination campaigns for other diseases have met with resistance, especially from some religious groups that suspect a veiled scheme by the West to render parts of the population sterile.

But Dr. Tsafack Rose Ernestine, a vaccination team leader in Cameroon’s largest city, Douala, says the claims are unfounded.

She says she is counting on journalists to deflect such myths. In principle, the campaign should end on October 30 but will be extended if resistance emerges. She says about 65 million people around the world have received the vaccine and are not complaining of sterility.

The vaccine being administered in Cameroon is branded Paneza and is made in Spain. Health care practitioners say it provides immunity for between 9 and 12 months. They say its only known side effect is mild dizziness. But they warn that persons allergic to eggs should avoid getting the shot because some batches are made from them. In those who are allergic, the vaccine can provoke Guillain-Barre, a rare syndrome that can cause nervous and muscle disorders.

Local traditional rulers are joining the effort to inform the public about the vaccine. A Douala canton chief, HM Essaka Ekwalla, is calling on his subjects to ignore the skeptics and rush to be vaccinated.

He says there is nothing to lose because the vaccine is free and causes no pain. He says old people like himself will benefit hugely from getting vaccinated because if they are Suffer with the virus, it will become hard to breathe, and they could die. The vaccine, says the conventional rulers, is cover against premature death.

Meanwhile, the government has been applauded by WHO and its partners to provide the H1N1 vaccine for free. Health Minister, Andre Mama Fouda, says that poor countries like Cameroon could not afford to fund mass vaccines on their own.

Influenza A H1N1

Talks about Influenza A H1N1.

A year has passed since the first cases of Influenza A H1N1 in Mexico, we had over 18000 deaths confirmed by lab diagnosis and reported to WHO. Surely an underestimate of the total number of cases.

The average mortality was of 0.5% of the confirmed cases, close to the seasonal flu. The mortality values varied a lot from country to country, and inside a country they varied according to different studies, which show the evident necessity of more available tests and a mutual opinion on the measure to be adopted.

Different from the seasonal flu, over 90% of deaths are concentrated in people younger than 65 yeas old, consequence of the previous immunity older people have. Pregnant ladies were also the most affected, although they represent only 1 to 2% of the general population, they were 6 to 10% of the deaths caused by the flu. Other groups also have their immune systems altered like the obese and the immunocompromised and are also among the most susceptible ones.

Treatment

Although bearing the already reported drug resistance to adamantanes drug family, the Influenza of swine origin can be treated with sialidase inhibitors, the drugs Oseltamivir and Zanamivir. Oseltamivir, available to be taken orally is cheaper, is still a very effective treatment, reducing the symptom’s severity and the time of hospitalization.

Some resistance cases were found, the majority isolated cases and in patients with treatment flaw mainly of them with prolonged therapy. Rarely patients without history of contact with the drugs were found with resistant viruses; the transmission of this kind of virus was also confirmed.

Conclusions

It is still very hard to diagnose the Influenza virus as a whole. The main method, the RT-PCR technique (virus genetic material amplification) still depends on recent technology and restricted access to poorer areas. We also depend on samples collected during the period of infection. We still need cheaper and more accessible ways of detecting the virus, as well as different and cheaper ways of treatment.

Influenza A H1N1 seems to become a seasonal virus with symptoms and cases like the common flu, however the virus evolutive course is unpredictable. The prevention and survey set for the Avian Influenza and the “normal” virulence of this virus contributed for the Swine Flu not have caused bigger damage. But we are still far from being protected from more pathogenic strains, in case some of them are transmitted more easily.

H1N1 Flu Vaccine

Article about Bharat Biotech Launches H1N1 Flu Vaccine.

Bharat Biotech announced Monday the launch of cultured cells "indigenously developed vaccine against the H1N1 influenza HNVAC brand. In a press release here, the company said this was the first indigenously developed Indian culture cells H1N1 swine influenza vaccines. It has been tested extensively in phase I, II and III clinical trials in the country and is proven safe and well tolerated. The release said it is developing the world's influenza vaccine produced in cell culture production process is sterile and control, instead of eggs.

The single dose vaccine will be priced competitively. Bharat Biotech’s CMD, Krishna Ella, said their immediate goal was to get the vaccine easily accessible and at an affordable cost to high risk groups. The key benefit of cell culture vaccine was its potential to scale up and produce large quantities when required and enabling quicker response in the event of a pandemic.

The company received the approval from Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month to launch HNVAC vaccine. It was developed with approved strains from WHO and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Atlanta. “USFDA has discouraged the use of egg-based vaccines due to adverse reactions from egg-based proteins, especially in children,” the release added. HNVAC will be made available in the private market and through government procurement agencies.

Most People Immune to H1N1 Flu

Here’s article about H1N1.

Swine flu no longer represents a major threat in the United States because so many people are immune to the virus that caused last season's pandemic, health officials said.

Of the 310 million people in the United States, 59 percent are believed to be immune to pandemic H1N1 flu, the researchers said. About 62 million people were vaccinated against the virus, 61 million people were infected by it and another 60 million people 57 or older carry protective antibodies to similar viruses that circulated years ago.

"It's very unlikely that the virus will explode in the fall," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, an author of the analysis. "We now have evidence of that."

The evidence comes from a flurry of studies of the 2009-10 pandemic carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers said. If this virus follows the pattern set by earlier flu bugs, it will die out completely or circulate among people who still are susceptible a year and a half after the virus emerged, the authors report in the journal mBio.

There still are many people who are vulnerable to swine flu, said David Morens, a virologist and historian at NIAID who co-wrote the report with Fauci and colleague Jeffery Taubenberger. "Even with the majority of people in the U.S. immune to the virus, that leaves many tens of millions of people still susceptible," Morens said. "We know the age groups that are most susceptible - people younger than 55 and those with chronic conditions."

The CDC estimates the 2009 H1N1 flu killed about 12,500 and sent 274,000 people to the hospital with respiratory diseases and other complications, a toll that mirrors the latest averages for people who suffer from seasonal flu. The death rate was relatively low compared with other pandemics, especially the 1918 flu, which killed 675,000 people in the United States, Morens said.

So far, he said, the virus hasn't developed "some terrible new mutation" that would make it more lethal, though that still could occur.

For the first time, federal health officials recommend that all people older than 6 months get vaccinated against flu, unless they have an allergy to eggs.

Get The Flu Shot

Article about H1N1. Read, click and try product from the bottom of this blog under sponsor links. ^_^

Last year at this time, a monster called H1N1 was preparing to make life miserable for more than 25,000 Canadians.

By the time the swine flu pandemic had passed, it was responsible for 427 deaths.

This year? Nothing quite as scary on the horizon, but that doesn't mean you can skip the flu shot. If anything, last year proved why everyone should get vaccinated every year, say Niagara's health professionals.

"I have five grandchildren, and they all get immunized ... because I've seen the results of not being immunized," says Donna Kalailieff, manager of the vaccine preventable disease program with Niagara Region Public Health.

She calls last year an "anomaly" because H1N1 surfaced after the regular flu vaccine was already prepared. This led to many people getting two flu shots, and in the case of the H1N1 vaccine, a long wait.

This year's regular flu shot will include the vaccine for H1N1 and two other strains.

The first shipment of vaccines arrived Wednesday, and doctors can start giving shots immediately.

Public Health's flu clinic opens at the MacBain Community Centre Nov. 3, and at the Leisureplex in Fort Erie Nov. 17.

But if you don't want to wait that long, Urgent Care Niagara's flu clinic at 6150 Valley Way opened Friday. In addition, employers can arrange for a free onsite clinic so workers don't have to leave work to get a shot.

Tim Windsor, clinical services director, says there are about 12,000 people in Urgent Care Niagara's database awaiting word on the opening of this year's flu clinics.

As always, part of flu season is educating people what, exactly, the flu shot is.

Protecting Vulnerable Against Influenza

Above thought about influenza.

Many minorities go unvaccinated against influenza, and a huge gap exists between the vaccination of minority and majority populations. In at least 12 states last influenza season, fatalities from H1N1 were four times greater among American Indians and Alaska Natives than for the general population. One study showed that among patients hospitalized by H1N1 in 13 metropolitan areas of 10 states, about 35% were black, whereas 16% were non-Hispanic white.

Influenza resulted in 23,607 deaths per year in the United States during the previous 3 decades. A total of 344 laboratory-confirmed deaths from H1N1 occurred in the pediatric population during the 2009–10 season, compared with 88 in 2007–08 and 69 in 2008–09, with data from specific communities showing that black and Hispanic children were more likely to die from H1N1.

The message is clear: influenza is deadly, costly to society because of lost productivity, and personal—protecting yourself through vaccination is the best way to protect others, particularly those who are susceptible to serious harm from the virus. These and other vital topics were discussed during a webinar titled Reaching Minority and Vulnerable Populations: Getting Ahead of the Curve to Prevent Seasonal Flu, held on October and presented by the Society for Public Health Education.

Mexico Ends H1N1 Alert After 14 Months

Here’s about H1N1.

The Mexican administration has declared the end of the health alert for the deadly virus A/H1N1 after 14 months in which 1,289 people lost the lives in this country and 72,000 cases were recorded.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos announced this at a press meet on Tuesday.

The decision was taken unanimously by the General Health Council after monitoring the progression of the outbreak that caused its last casualty during the last month (May 2010) and in agreement with WHO and the Pan American Health Organization.

Whilst there were 216 people hospitalized in October last year, by June 25 there were just 22.

"The ciruculation of the virus is minimal," Villalobos said.

Nonetheless, the country is not lowering its guard and still has some 875,000 doses of anti-influenza A (H1N1) vaccine on hand. (With Inputs from Agencies)

Woman Succumbs With H1N1

Above some info about it.

Woman succumbs to H1N1 virus

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Hyderabad June 25, 2010, 0:28 IST

A 27-year woman succumbed to H1N1 virus on Thursday. The woman, a native of Mahbubnagar district, was referred to Hyderabad by Sri Venkateshwara Medical College in the district. She was admitted to a corporate hospital in Malakpet on June 21 and samples were sent for testing on June 22.

The tests turned positive. The hospital authorities asked the family members to shift the woman to Gandhi Hospital, where she succumbed. This is the second death from swine flu in Hyderabad and third in the state this season.

Vaccine H1N1 offered

Above about free H1N1 vaccine offered in Johnson County.

The Johnson County Health Department is still offering free H1N1 vaccine, it announced Thursday.

People are still contracting the flu, though in much smaller numbers, and officials are recommending that people get vaccinated.

Johnson County has enough vaccine to last until about September, officials said, when a new seasonal flu vaccine will come out that includes protection against the H1N1 strain.

Of 309 million residents in the United States, officials said, about 60 million were infected with H1N1 in the past year and 75 million got the vaccine.

That leaves more than half of citizens still vulnerable, they said.

The vaccines are offered without appointments to all who want them, officials said. They can get them at the clinic in Olathe at 11875 S. Sunset Drive or the one in Mission at 6000 Lamar Ave.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/24/2041454/free-h1n1-vaccinations-offered.html#ixzz0rrHyEHpW

Kerala: H1N1 takes on 16 lives

Above about H1N1 in Kerala.

New Delhi, June 15^th: The Union Government today decided to send a three-member team to Kerala as a fresh outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in two districts of the state has caused at least 16 deaths in the past one month.

An official press release said the the pandemic had started showing an increasing trend with the onset of the monsoon in Kerala. It said the outbreak was confined to Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of south Kerala.

In all, there had been 201 laboratory-confirmed cases of the flu and 16 deaths, the release said. Nine of those who died were pregnant women.

The central team, that is expected to leave here tomorrow, will consist of Dr Sunil Gupta, Joint Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, Dr Pradeep Khasnobis, Epidemiologist, NCDC, and Dr B V Tandale, Scientist, National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

The release said the State Government had sought support in terms of drugs, vaccines and personal protective equipment (PPE) and these were being sent to the state immediately. The items include oseltamivir capsules, oseltamivir suspension, vaccines and masks.

The release said Kerala had earlier received 45,000 doses of vaccine. The utilisation for healthcare workers is about 92 per cent, it said.

According to the release, the state government had sought one lakh doses of vaccine to vaccinate pregnant women. It said the bridging study of Sanofi Pasteur or the clinical trials conducted by Zydus Cadila did not include pregnant women.

One Year Later

Here’s info about H1N1.

A year ago, swine flu was a major issue. Now the attention to the so-called H1N1 virus has died down, but state health officials say the threat is still there.

It was last April that swine flu cases first started appearing.

“It’s been one heck of a year.”

California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Mark Horton says the state’s been through two waves of the illness. About nine-thousand Californians have been hospitalized with H1N1 and nearly 600 have died from the virus. Horton says though the pandemic has receded for now, H1N1 is still out there:

"When we’ve looked back historically what has happened with similar pandemics in the past there have been in many cases third and fourth waves.”

Horton says if that does happen, the state still has a network of doctors set up to alert health officials:

“The surveillance mechanisms are still in place to allow us to at the earliest possible sign to detect any re-increase of influenza activity in the community and we’ll be ramping that up again as we move closer to the fall.”

H1N1 (Swine Flu)

Here’s about H1N1 nowadays.

The head of the WHO said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers’ links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in a critical journal article this month.

Three scientists out of 22 who worked on the guidelines were named as having received some money from pharmaceuticals. The scientists did not work at the drug companies, but were paid for things like speaking at meetings sponsored by them.

The guidelines recommend, among other things, that countries consider buying antivirals and vaccines to combat a pandemic. The authors of the BMJ article suggest, without providing direct evidence, that these scientists’ ties to pharmaceutical companies influenced WHO’s recommendation that countries buy drugs and vaccines — adding to those drug companies’ profits. “Our investigation has revealed damaging issues,” wrote Deborah Cohen of BMJ and journalist Philip Carter. “These conflicts of interest have never been disclosed by WHO.

WHO’s handling of the outbreak is being reviewed by a 29-member expert panel that will report its findings next year. Critics say many of those panelists are also trusted WHO advisers and government employees who could end up whitewashing any failures. “At no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.

Chan insisted she was open to the panel’s criticism. “Should this committee decide that the current definition of a pandemic and the phases leading up to its declaration need to be tightened or otherwise revised, this will be another recommendation that we will welcome, and act on.”

The U.S. Health and Human Services department defended the U.N. body. “WHO handled the outbreak in a very measured and appropriate manner,” said Bill Hall, an HHS spokesman. “Their decisions were driven by the existing and evolving conditions at the time.” He said there was “no indication whatsoever that any of their decisions were influenced by industry.” Other leading officials agreed.

“There was nothing in those guidelines that was not based on the best science available,” said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. on pandemic preparations. He said the scientists consulted were the world’s top flu experts and to not include them would have been a major flaw. Osterholm said that because flu viruses are unpredictable, it was impossible for anyone to predict last spring that swine flu would not evolve into a more lethal strain.

He slammed the BMJ article, calling it “irresponsible and reckless,” and said its authors had not substantiated their claims WHO behaved inappropriately during the pandemic. “It’s akin to shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre without regard to the consequences,” Osterholm said. He said while WHO should be subjected to the highest scrutiny, BMJ’s accusations had done “untold damage to the public health infrastructure of the world.”

Harvey Fineberg, the president of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, said the review panel which he heads will hear from critics of WHO when it next meets from June 30 to July 2. A report published by the Council of Europe last week said the guidelines from WHO, European Union agencies and national governments led to a “waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public.” The agency is not an EU body.

Dangerous or exaggerated?

Above about H1N1.

When H1N1 broke out in Mexico, many reports of death and widespread illness were made. While it is true that many people died or became very ill in countries like Mexico, this is mostly because of a lack of treatment opportunities. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization, or WHO, has blown it out of proportion and made US citizens think it was fatal no matter where you lived. I do think that H1N1's reputation was amplified when people got word of it and panicked. Many schools were actually shut down because of just a couple of cases, and clinics were created just to test for symptoms.

There were fewer deaths from Swine Flu than from the normal influenza, and less than 1% of patients are currently being hospitalized. H1N1 is expected to come back during the normal time when flu comes, and seems like it will be around for a while. However, unless if it mutates into something worse, there is nothing to be afraid of.

H1N1 pandemic slowing

Here about H1N1.

In a statement published on its website, said the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee Tuesday that the worst outbreak of H1N1 influenza pandemic, which spread rapidly last summer seems to have passed, call if not to the point wiped away.

Tropical areas such as the Caribbean and Southeast Asia remain the most active regions where pandemic influenza virus is being spread, though, according to the WHO release, they are experiencing only a "low-level resurgence of cases after experiencing more intense activity during July 2009."
The release states that, "After extensive discussions and questions, the Committee expressed the unanimous view that from a global perspective while pandemic activity is continuing, the period of most intense pandemic activity appears likely to have passed for many parts of the world."
Despite the ebbing of the disease, the WHO warns, countries should remain vigilant in taking public health precautions to prevent the spread of the pandemic, such as continued vaccination and surveillance of the disease, the release stated.
Pandemic disease is likely to continue to happen, and the Emergency Committee will gather once more in July to discuss information about the winter influenza season in the Southern Hemisphere.

H1N1 flu incidence rated low

Above About H1N1.

The last update of the spread of influenza in Florida, shows sporadic activity in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties and 24 counties reported no known activity at all.
Florida Department of Health has published its findings on Wednesday, February 3rd. They showed that 201 Floridians died of the flu virus H1N1, which began the exchange in the world last spring. A total of 1233 people were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed H1N1. Influenza activity is similar to the flu season earlier this time.
There is no evidence that the virus has evolved into a more virulent form, or in Florida, and the rest of the United States or elsewhere in the world.

Talks about spread of H1N1

Here about H1N1.

The World Health Organization has warned that the global A/H1N1 flu pandemic is still in its early stages. It says reports of over 100,000 infections in England alone last week are plausible.

The WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment said on Friday, given the size of the world's population, the A/H1-N1 flu is likely to spread for some time.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, said, "What WHO has been reporting from the beginning is laboratory confirmed cases. And so we've always known that this is a smaller group of the total number of cases."

H1N1 cause cancellation of pilgrimage

Above about H1N1.

In Costa Rica, fears that swine flu might spread through the crowds of faithful walking to the Basilica de los Angeles in Cartago, the country’s Ministry of Health and Catholic Church agreed to suspend the annual pilgrimage.

Hundreds of thousands of people, some from outside the country, make the annual  August 2 pilgrimage to Cartago, the country's first capital. Authorities feared that up to 20,000 people could contract swine flu if the pilgrimage went ahead.

In Saudi Arabia and surrounding nations, the young, old and sick are banned from the hajj.

Health ministers from Arab states agreed to ban children, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses from participating in the hajj , an annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia that attracts 3 million people every year to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The ministers hope the ban, which applies to adults over the age of 65 and children under 12, will reduce the possibility of swine flu contagion during the hajj, which takes place in late November, following peak flu season. A 28-year-old Egyptian woman died from swine flu last week after returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca — the first such death from the swine flu virus in the Middle East.

The World Health Organization reports that deaths from swine flu worldwide have doubled in the past three weeks, from about 330 to over 700. Scientists are working on developing a vaccine before the flu season begins this fall in the northern hemisphere.

H1N1 flu cases

Here about H1N1 flu case.

A 7-year-old boy is the latest case of novel influenza H1N1 to be confirmed at Fort Gordon, the post announced Wednesday.

The boy was seen at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center on July 15, given anti-viral medication and sent home to recover, according to a news release. The boy is a child of a military member, but it was unclear where the child resides.

The child is the 18th case at the post this year, spokeswoman Marla Jones said. The fort has contingency plans to isolate sick personnel should the need arise, but those plans are not in effect, she said.

"We would have to have a large number of cases that the hospital couldn't handle," Ms. Jones said.

As with most of the military samples, the tests are being confirmed in the laboratory of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio. Georgia, which is only testing severely ill and hospitalized patients suspected of having the new virus, has seen 178 confirmed cases as of last week, with one confirmed death.

South Carolina has had 228 lab-confirmed cases as of July 10, including 13 in Aiken County.