Danville mom upset about H1N1 testing

After the Virginia Department of Health confirmed a case of the H1N1 “swine flu” virus in Danville on Tuesday, one local mother of two sick daughters is upset that the public is unaware of just how many local cases there could be.

But Dr. Charles Devine, health director of the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District, said the only need for confirming cases was to track the virus, not to prescribe treatment because the treatment is the same regardless of H1N1 confirmation.

“There’s no particular reason to have the confirmatory tests done when it comes to treatment decisions,” Devine said. “The state laboratory and CDC laboratory performed confirmatory tests as part of their epidemiologic study and surveillance, so we know where any illness is.

“But the test result itself does not affect treatment decisions,” he said.

Darie Ibrahim has three daughters, two of whom tested positive by their pediatrician for the H1N1 “swine flu” virus after her oldest daughter, 17, returned from a summer program. Ibrahim said her daughter came into contact with the virus after participating in the weeklong Virginia Girls State program through Longwood University.

Through her own efforts, Ibrahim said she has learned that eight of the 40 girls in the dorm where her daughter stayed have tested positive for the virus. More than 500 girls participated in the overall camp, she said. No one associated with Virginia Girls State could be reached for comment.

Her oldest daughter began showing symptoms July 2, and her youngest, 11, became ill July 4. On Monday, Ibrahim took her daughters to their pediatrician, Dr. Nada Owusu of the Children’s Healthcare Center in Danville, where Ibrahim said Owusu took a swab test, leading her to an H1N1 diagnosis.

Ibrahim said Owusu, who could not be reached for comment, prescribed Tamiflu for the girls and sent the family to LabCorp to be tested officially. But LabCorp could not test the girls, Ibrahim said. No one at LabCorp was available for comment.

Ibrahim took her daughters back to Owusu and later to the Emergency Department at Danville Regional Medical Center. She said she was only given information about what would make a patient eligible for the official CDC test — hospitalization, severe symptoms — but Ibrahim could not find anyone to administer an official test.

“You have to have one foot in the grave and one foot out,” Ibrahim said. “I don’t blame the medical field for this; obviously their hands are tied … But the public is not being made aware of how many cases there are. It feels like things are being swept under the rug.”

Ibrahim was particularly worried because she suffers from MS and has a weak auto-immune system. Both of her parents are ill, and one of her daughters is a diabetic.

“My concern is for all the other people who are not being tested and for how they’re handling the exposed families,” she said. “There’s five of us in this household and they only issued the Tamiflu for the exposed people.”

Devine said because one case has been confirmed in Danville, there is no longer as much pressure to test patients because the CDC is now aware the virus is in the area. The virus is being treated similar to the seasonal flu in severity, with patients being prescribed one of two antiviral medications.

He stressed that there was no medical need to confirm a case of H1N1.

“If you are sick enough to be hospitalized and have an influenza-like illness, that’s someone who we would be interested in confirming,” Devine said. “Confirming it makes no difference regarding treatment. There’s no utility to the patient for confirmatory tests.

“There’s very little reason to continue to test every person or every person admitted to the hospital.”