WASHINGTON -At least seven people were in U.S. hospitals with swine flu Tuesday as the number of cases nationwide rose to 64 and a federal health official warned that deaths were likely.

"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta.

There were still no reported cases of swine flu in our area, but local health officials and hospitals were taking precautions and dusting off pandemic plans Tuesday.

"We know that our plan to move anti-virals -- Tamiflu and Felenza -- from the stockpile out to the states is underway and is working," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "One of the things we're doing now is looking to see what, if any, gaps are in the system and how do we fill them."

Right now, Maryland has 276,000 doses of antiviral drugs, with the federal government sending another 200,000. Virginia has 770,000 doses, with another 280,000 coming next week.

Sources say locally based Novavax is working on a vaccine that could be completed in as soon as 10 weeks.

Local health care institutions are looking at plans to deal with a pandemic that have been in place for years.

"There's no real reason to think we're going to escape this, since it seems to be spreading fairly quickly," said Dr. Peter Holbrook, chief medical officer at Children's National Medical Center. "If patients get sick enough to get admitted to the hospital, then we have to ask ourselves: Do we have enough beds? Do we have the right kinds of beds?"

Dr. Holbrook says Children's Hospital is prepared to turn to its Code Navy Plan, designed after September 11th. The facility is evaluating staff, counting beds and assessing lab capacity. The hospital can even transform its entire fifth floor to a quarantine unit, if necessary.

"If we get to the epidemic situation, we have a plan that actually starts in the parking lot," Dr. Holbrooke said.

Area school districts are also developing plans to combat any local outbreak, especially after dozens of cases have been confirmed at a school in New York City. 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the swine flu has since spread to a second high school where students are complaining of similar symptoms. 

"We expect if swine flu continues to spread, we may sadly see people either in New York City or nationally get sick and die and we're [going to] do everything we can to reduce the risk of that happening," said Bloomberg.

D.C. public schools sent out a recorded message to parents, saying it is closely monitoring the situation here.

"Yes they're supposed to do that: call parents and let them know what they're about to do about that flu," said Paulette Binns, a parent.

Officials say the 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States span as many as seven states. Internationally, swine flu has infected people in six countries, with most cases linked back to a recent Mexico visits.

Meanwhile, health officials are urging people to regularly wash their hands, look for flu-like symptoms, and if sick, seek help. To help the U.S. respond to swine flu, President Obama is asking Congress for an additional $1.5 billion to supplement the current anti-viral medication stockpile and help develop a vaccine.

 

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