So far, swine flu stays clear of Carson Valley

As of Tuesday, Gardnerville has had no cases that required testing for swine flu under Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

Carson Valley Medical Center Infection Control Coordinator Amy Meeks said the hospital will test people for the flu if they show symptoms and they've had recent contact with a lab-confirmed flu victim, or have been to a community with a confirmed case in the last seven days.

No cases of the disease have been reported in Nevada, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Meeks said she's heard the hospital's emergency room doctors have received requests for the anti-viral Tamiflu, which has been shown to control the flu.

"The strategic national stockpile will be sending us doses with the recommendation that they only be given to patients ill enough to be hospitalized. So far it's been a pretty mild illness in the U.S. For most healthy people, it's miserable, but not life threatening."

So far 64 cases have been reported in the United States, with 10 in California and 45 in New York City.

Carson Valley Medical Center Infection Control Coordinator Amy Meeks said the hospital has a disaster plan and an epidemic respiratory disease plan in place.

"We rely on state health and CDC surveillance when to enact those," she said.

"Some of the things we've done so far is to speak to departments about signs and to and make masks and hand sanitizer are available to all patients and visitors. We're asking anyone who has a cough or sore throat to wear a mask. That's standard operating procedure, but we're ramping up enforcement."

Meeks pointed out that health officials are more concerned about the nature of the organism than the number of cases. When a virus jumps species, it tends to be more dangerous.

"The pandemic alert is four now," Meeks said. "That means that it is not containable at this point."

The Centers for Disease Control issued a travel alert encouraging residents avoid nonessential travel to Mexico on Monday.