MARSHALL COUNTY, OK- Southeastern Oklahoma has had a 25% increase of flu-like symptoms since September 1st, and residents in Marshall county are seeing it first hand.

When students in mass numbers began to miss class throughout the Kingston school system, parents and staff became concerned.

"All the students sometimes can't get in when you have 200 from this school system and maybe a 100 or so from the other school district,” said Jay McAdams, Superintendent of the Kingston Schools.

“It's hard for the students to get into the medical clinics in order to get diagnosed with exactly what's going on."

McAdams said there were a large number of absences at the beginning of the week but the absences decreased as the week progressed. A majority of those students were out sick.

"It looks like hopefully maybe it's gone and ran its course here at Kingston, in this time of year there is going to be a lot of sick people and that's just part of living in Oklahoma also,” said McAdams.

But individuals concerned about flu-like symptoms are not only in the Kingston area. Marsha Bolay, Enos resident, says her granddaughter could have the H1N1 virus.

Bolay believes the Madill emergency room may have misdiagnosed her.
When Bolay’s family took her granddaughter to the Madill emergency room they diagnosed her with a sinus infection. Within a 24-hour time period her granddaughter got worse and ran a high fever so family took her to the Durant emergency room where the doctor said she had the flu. There, she was tested for H1N1.

Bolay is worried that others may have been diagnosed with sinus infections when they may have the flu instead and possibly H1N1.

"Their being diagnosed with sinus infections so therefore they go home and they're not afraid of being contagious if they have sinus infections,” said Bolay. "It's spreading like wild fire and I think that may be a part of it."

But hospital officials say a flu diagnosis isn’t always black and white. Symptoms change with the evolution of the virus and are to be determined by the attending physician.

"Usually the testing for the flu is done but that's 40 to 60% accurate so sometimes the test comes back negative even if they have the flu,” said Tina Harrison, Infection Prevention Nurse at Integris Marshall Memorial Hospital in Madill.

Hospital officials say that if you have the flu there is more than a 90% chance it's actually the Swine flu but there is no cause for alarm.

"The H1N1 is actually, in some cases, milder than the regular flu,” said Harrison.

Hospital officials did say that if you have underlying medical conditions or your flu-like symptoms get worse even with fever suppressants than you should see your physician right away.

Individuals with flu-like symptoms who see their doctor aren’t required to be tested for H1N1 unless they fit criteria released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those who fit the criteria will be the ones to receive the vaccine come October.

For more information about the prevention of the flu and H1N1, click the link below.

On the Web:

http://www.ok.gov/health/