State Health Officials on “Pandemic” Footing
The head of the Texas Department of State Health Services told a House panel April 28 that his department is treating the Swine Flu as a “pandemic.”
So far, six cases have been confirmed in Texas. No one has been hospitalized, but Doctor David Lakey said the low number in hospitals worries him.
“And we expect that as we look, we’ll find more patients that are hospitalized. And we expect that, at some point, we will see deaths,” he told the House Public Health Committee.
Doctor Lakey said Texas will have almost 1.7 million anti-viral treatments available from existing state supplies and from Federal stockpiles. But he added that an outbreak will likely ebb and flow over the course of weeks, even months.
“I think that’s important, as we respond, because we have to be prudent on how we use our resources, like anti-viral medicines at this time. If you used them all during this time, and come fall it came back in a second wave, we would have difficulty,” Lakey warned.
Three of the Texas cases have been confirmed in Guadalupe County and three more were confirmed in Dallas County. So far, health officials say no Swine Flu cases have been confirmed in Travis County.
