Health Officer Dr. Rick Johnson reported today that the California Department of Public Health notified the Mono County Health Department that a probable case of Swine or H1N1 flu was laboratory confirmed.

mammoth-hospital-entrance

Mammoth Hospital

Dr. Johnson said that Mammoth Hospital actively collaborated with the health department on this case which involved a recent adult visitor to Mono County. Dr. Johnson said this person was sick before arrival, was seen at Mammoth Hospital and left the area. The individual recovered at home without further medical care. No other household contacts have become ill. Staff at Mammoth Hospital who came in contact with the flu case were identified. None of the staff is ill and they are all past the incubation period when they might have become sick from this contact.

This is the first report of an individual in the Eastern Sierra having evidence of infection with swine or H1N1 flu. Cases of the flu do continue to increase throughout the world, but the illness continues to be mild without many hospitalizations and only a single death in the U.S.

Dr. Johnson said that the fact that the local case was a visitor points out the vulnerability we have in the Eastern Sierra with our tourist-based economy. We have a lot more travel in and out of our county, said Dr. Johnson, both by locals and visitors, than the typical rural California county.”

Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading