Respiratory illness hits remote Alaska island
by Angela Blanchard
Thursday, October 2, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- The State Health Department and U.S. Centers for Disease Control are investigating an outbreak of a respiratory illness on Prince of Wales Island.
Health department officials are reporting 26 suspected or confirmed cases of the unknown illness in communities like Craig and Klawock.
Officials say seven people have been hospitalized.
Symptoms of the illness include a severe dry cough and a fever above 101 degrees.
The health department says so far the state is not prohibiting travel to and from the island or quarantining anyone but is advising people to practice good respiratory hygiene.
"Basically you can go a long way with just washing your hands meticulously and covering your cough and using tissues and throwing them away," Medical Epidemiologist Dr. Beth Funk said. "Don't leave them lying around, just sort of simple things like that."
The health department is collecting samples and sending them to the CDC, as well as testing samples in an Anchorage lab.
Contact Angela Blanchard at
ablanchard@ktuu.com wow, and arn't they trying to track down a source case of tb in Canada someplace.
Source: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81613 
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