If you have flulike symptoms, see your doctor or call (619) 542-4300 for a referral to a nearby community clinic.
For information about swine flu, go to cdc.gov/flu/swine
A public health mystery widened yesterday when federal health officials identified three new cases of swine flu in San Diego and Imperial counties and predicted more will surface.
That brings the total to five for the region since last week, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during a hastily arranged media conference call from their headquarters in Atlanta.
The agency also reported two cases of the highly unusual infection near San Antonio.
All of the patients said they had no contact with pigs, which is the main way the virus jumps from animals to humans. They have fully recovered after falling ill between March 28 and mid-April, health officials said.
CDC leaders expect to diagnose more people with swine flu as local, state and federal health investigators intensify efforts to test individuals with flulike symptoms.
They're asking doctors in San Diego and Imperial counties to take specimens from people who seem to have influenza. The same request has been made of physicians in Guadalupe County, Texas, which includes San Antonio.
Swine flu symptoms resemble those of regular human influenza, including runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
In California, the state Department of Public Health sent two infectious-disease specialists to San Diego on Wednesday night to help trace the local origins of the illness, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer.
More help could arrive from the state and the CDC if the number of cases grows, she said.
Health officials were careful to stress that the infection clusters don't constitute a disease outbreak. They also said widely available antiviral drugs seem to be effective in treating the current swine flu cases.
There is no danger in eating pork products because influenza isn't spread through food.
“We don't want anyone to do anything different than they would normally be doing,” Wooten said.
At Scripps Health's five local hospitals, administrators yesterday reminded doctors and nurses to wear specialized surgical masks when caring for patients with respiratory problems.
The two latest cases from San Diego County involved a 54-year-old father and his 16-year-old daughter. The new patient in Imperial County was a 41-year-old woman who was briefly hospitalized. The San Antonio patients are 16-year-old male classmates.
Health officials wouldn't name the patients or their cities of residence.
“We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease. “We really don't know the extent of the spread.”
All of the cases have been along the border region with Mexico, so CDC investigators are talking with their counterparts in that country, Schuchat said. No swine flu infections have been reported in Mexico.
Like other types of influenza, swine flu typically creates a mild infection. Its rarity in humans and the lack of a vaccine for people mean that few individuals have antibodies to fight off the virus. That could lead to a rapid spread of the virus.