Now 40 cases of the swine flu have been reported in the United States, prompting the Center for Disease Control to declare a public health care emergency.
“We do think this will continue to spread but we are taking aggressive action to minimize the effect on people's health", said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Denise Wardell of the Grayson County Health Department says protecting yourself from illness is just a matter of good hygiene.
"Good hand washing techniques always that is your best defense against everything", said Wardell.
The Grayson County Health Department has plans and procedures to deal with an outbreak. In fact, On Sunday Texas Governor Rick Perry asked the CDC to release 850 thousand doses of antiviral medication as a precautionary measure.
"This type of flu, while it is different to the types of flu we usually see it is responsive to two types of antivirals that we commonly use", said Wardell.
There have been no cases of swine flu infections in north Texas or Oklahoma as of Sunday evening.
If you do get sick the CDC says the best thing to do is stay home, get some sleep, Drink plenty of fluids and avoid other people.
"If you can interrupt the chain of transmission either with vaccinations or medications or stopping the people that are sick from making other people sick, you can interrupt the whole process of someone coming down with it", said Wardell.
While there are several probable cases of Swine Flu in the Dallas area, as of the time this story aired, the only two confirmed cases in Texas, are from the San Antonio area.
U.S. Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
(As of April 27, 2009 1:00 PM ET)
State...............................# of laboratory confirmed cases
California............................ 7 cases
Kansas ..............................2 cases
New York City................. 28 cases
Ohio................................... 1 case
Texas.................................2 cases
TOTAL COUNT...................40 cases
The CDC has tons of useful information posted on their website: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
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