Dan's Papers - July 3, 2009 - WHO HAS THE BIG BAD FLU? PROBABLY YOU ...

Pandemic: defined by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as something "occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population"- and it's a word that has come back into play since the appearance of the "swine flu" earlier this year (March-April) in Mexico and here in the United States. Since those first cases, over 70 countries have reported human infection; the World Health Organization (WHO) responded on June 11 by raising the "worldwide pandemic alert level" to "Phase 6"- by which WHO signals "the need for response and mitigation efforts."

Officially designated as "novel influenza A" (H1N1), it's known to be spread through the same methods as other regular seasonal influenza viruses (coughing, sneezing, potentially through contact with infected objects) and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it "has been reported to cause a wide range of flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In addition, many people also have reported nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea."

So, if the world is at a pandemic status, yet the virus does little more damage than other flu strains - how concerned should the general populace be? And should the East End - far from the hustle and bustle of most of the Island's communities, yet very international in make-up - be ready for potential problems?

History shows that Suffolk County, and the Hampton townships, have dealt with pandemics before. According to the deep research provided to Dan's by Terry Lucas, a reference librarian at Rogers Memorial Library, the infamous 1918 "Spanish Flu" epidemic that struck millions worldwide also impacted the South Fork. For example, the Suffolk County News from March 28, 1919 reported that:

"The return of the epidemic of influenza has been very serious in Amagansett and throughout the Hamptons generally. Public halls have been closed and public assemblages forbidden."

And just as our government offers health advice today, officials then did the same - as the then-U.S. Surgeon General Rupert Blue was quoted in the December 14, 1918 edition of the Port Jefferson Echo:

"I believe we could easily save 100,000 lives annually in the United States if all the people would adopt the system of fresh air living, followed, for example, in tuberculosis sanatoria. [These were institutions set aside for the treatment of chronic diseases under medical supervision.] There is nothing mysterious about it - no specific medicine, no vaccine. The important thing is right living, good food and plenty of fresh air."

It's hard to say whether the two students at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor were living lifestyles that resembled Blue's 90-year-old advice when they were diagnosed with the swine flu, duly noted in the letter sent home to parents on June 11 by school superintendent Dr. John R. Gratto. Gratto mentions in the note that while a number of other children are being treated for flu-like symptoms, they have not been confirmed to have the H1N1 strain. And while other Long Island schools had closed during the earlier months of the pandemic, he tells parents that the Suffolk County Department of Health did not recommend shutting down Pierson, and that the county feels that the "severity of H1N1 is less than originally thought and the advice is to treat it as any seasonal flu."

One might consider this odd, considering the media's intensive coverage of the virus and its impact. Major media outlets have made bold declarations, such as the Wall Street Journal when they ran the headline, "Flu Fears Spur Global Triage"- or even the "Hog Wild" exclamation that ran on the front cover of the New York Post (complete with a photo of a pig being checked for a fever). It's been covered by most TV and cable networks, and even the president has called the pandemic a "serious situation," urging schools to "strongly consider temporarily closing so we can be as safe as possible." Is this a case of the media overplaying the dangers of the H1N1 influenza?

The answer may lie in the opinions of the medical community. Fears and panic do not seem to be part of their thinking - in fact, some local professionals have expressed that this strain of the flu is so commonplace it shouldn't be considered unusual to contract it.

Dr. Fred Weinbaum, Southampton Hospital's Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer spoke about testing for the swine flu. He described that "rapid" testing - which involves a nasopharyngeal (the cavity of the nose, the nasal parts of the pharynx) swab - is about 60-70% accurate in determining flu presence and has revealed that "almost all the flu detected now is swine origin flu A (H1N1)." He also pointed out that a negative test result could still actually be the flu. However, he says there's really no reason to determine which subtype (there are several influenza A types) for "if a test is positive for flu at all, or the patient has classical symptoms or has a known exposure, then appropriate treatment can be started and further testing is irrelevant," noting that the state won't attempt to ascertain further subtyping by the same reasoning.

Dr. George P. Dempsey of East Hampton also concurs and adds that the specific test for swine flu is "too sophisticated" for commercial labs and is only being done by the Department of Health (DOH). He adds that the DOH "is screening which patients should be tested because of the volume and the limitations of their equipment. Therefore only the most severe cases such as hospitalized patients [and] pregnant patients are being tested specifically for the swine flu strain."

He also feels that he's seeing H1N1 on a common basis "since historically we have never had the seasonal flu past April or so, and yes, we are seeing flu cases everyday...There are too many cases to be identified definitively." However, whether the flu his patients are experiencing is swine or otherwise, they are all responding to current antiviral medications.

If this is the case - that so many local residents are contracting the novel influenza A, yet are coping with it as they would any other case of the flu - perhaps it would be wise to consider the lack of frightening wording in the dictionary's definition of "pandemic," instead of being carried away by the sense of danger implied by some newspapers, tabloids and sites found on the not-always-so-well-vetted World Wide Web.