The Niagara Country Health Department is looking into an outbreak of illness in the Niagara County District Attorney’s office.
At least four people in the office have reportedly fallen ill with flu-like symptoms in the past few days.
“There are some people there who are sick,” Public Health Director Dan Stapleton said. “The issue is people get sick, they immediately think it’s H1N1 (swine flu).”
Stapleton said a sample has been taken from one employee in the DA’s office and that has been sent to the Erie County Public Health Laboratory for testing. That testing is slated for later today and Stapleton said the results should be known by late Thursday or early Friday.
In the event the sample is confirmed as H1N1 Influenza A, Stapleton said the treatment is no different than of other flu strains.
“We know that H1N1 is somewhat pervasive throughout Niagara County,” Stapleton said. “That’s why we continue to urge people to take precautions like washing their hands.”
The public health chief said the flu symptoms are relatively mild and that leads many adults to go to work, even though they may feel sick. The health department recommends staying home and not returning to work until a person has been “symptom free” for 24 hours.
“After 24 hours, the person is safe,” Stapleton said.
Stapleton spoke to the Gazette on Tuesday after he and other county health department officials had wrapped up a meeting with representatives of the New York State Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control to review Niagara County’s plans for dealing with infectious disease outbreaks. The public health chief said the state and federal officials seemed pleased with the plan.
“We did a good job of containing (swine flu) in the schools and now they are out for the summer, so we’re concentrating on summer camps,” Stapleton said. “It’s the same message to parents, if your child is sick don’t send them to camp and if they’re at camp they need to regularly wash their hands.
Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer
at 282-2311, ext. 2252.
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