Robocall: No Swine Flu in D.C., People, SO DON'T PANIC!

From Peoria, Ill., to Peoria, Ariz., health officials are hoping to dodge the outbreak of swine flu that so far is suspected of killing at least 149 people in Mexico and has caused one known death in the United States. But schools, colleges and universities around the country are also preparing for the worst. President Obama recommended that those with confirmed or suspected cases "strongly consider temporarily closing." Such measures have already been taken in Chicago and in a growing number of states including California, Texas, and Connecticut. In New York City, a public school half a mile from St. Francis Preparatory School, where an earlier cluster of cases was diagnosed, is the latest school to lock its doors.

Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference Monday that the situation will probably get worse before it improves: "I expect as we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," meaning that we will likely see the outbreak claim more lives as time goes on.

Still, the message for everyone, says Hector Ocaranza, a pediatrician and health official in El Paso, Tex., just across the Rio Grande from the Mexican border town of Juarez, "is not to panic."

That's the word my family got via robo-call Monday. When I picked up the phone, a man with a sonorous voice said: "Good evening. I'm calling from the District of Columbia Public Schools with a message about the recent news reports of swine flu in the United States. Please be assured that no cases of swine flu have been reported in the District of Columbia or in DCPS." The man went on to say that a letter bearing more information about swine flu will be coming home with my child within the next few days. Houston, Fort Worth, and Tampa, Fla.-not to mention the two Peorias-are among other cities sending out similar info this week.

While school and health officials are closely coordinating their approaches, many of the emergency action plans being dusted off and readied were first drawn up during the avian flu scare four years ago.

For now, all of the letters - and doctors -- are preaching prevention. As basic as it seems, everyone from the President to the CDC's Besser to my own children's pediatrician is talking about hand-washing. "Teach your kids to wash their hands," says Peter Warfield, a Washington-area doctor, who reminds adults "to do good role modeling" by washing theirs, too. Other basic preventive measures include coughing into your sleeve rather than using your hand and disposing of used tissues properly.

While this flu has struck Americans ranging from 23 months old to 54 years, Warfield says that kids have certain tendencies that might make them more likely to transmit the virus. "They're more prone to touch their eyes and mouth," which is one way that a respiratory virus like swine flu spreads.

Here are a couple of other swine flu facts:

* The flu shot you got last fall is not effective against swine flu, which is a novel strain in the United States.

* While the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are effective in treating the virus, don't take them prophylactically. They're "not entirely benign medicines," says Warfield, who cautions that their side effects can include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.