Swine flu cases at CGA now stand at 33
Fifteen more tests pending
By Jennifer Grogan
Published on 7/20/2009
TheDay.com
New London -- Three more people at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy have confirmed cases of swine flu in addition to 22 over the weekend, bringing the total to 33.
Twenty-two have been discharged from isolation, after an average seven-day stay, and 11 are still being kept there, said Petty Officer Ryan Doss, an academy spokesman.
The academy reported last week that six “swabs,” the newest students at the school currently taking part in a mandatory summer session, and two older cadets who were training them were ill with swine flu, also called novel H1N1 influenza.
But test results the school received Sunday showed that an additional 22 people had H1N1 and three cases were confirmed today, Doss said. Fifteen more tests are pending.
Of the 33 people, 28 are swabs, three are cadets and two are clinic staff.
The treatment procedures have not changed, Doss added. Those who are ill are isolated, given the anti-viral medication Tamiflu and monitored, he said.
Doss said it would be hard to pinpoint how H1N1 was introduced at the academy, given that hundreds of people visit the school grounds daily.