The Hanover Inn employee suspected to have swine flu has tested positive for the virus, according to College Health Services director John Turco. There are now three confirmed cases of swine flu in New Hamphire, state public health director Jose Montero said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"The case was already probable, which means that it's 99 percent going to be true," Turco said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "But now we know for sure."
Those familiar with the situation were not surprised by the Hanover Inn employee's diagnosis, Turco said.
"The probable case that was reported over a week ago, we knew in effect that it was swine flu," Turco said. "Once it left the New Hampshire Public Health Department, when they knew it was influenza A, that left only swine flu."
The individual is no longer at risk of infecting the community, Montero said.
"This particular patient has already passed the time of infectiousness," he said. "There is no risk whatsoever. All the precautions that needed to take place have been done. There is no need for new precautions in the Upper Valley."
The details surrounding the Inn employee's treatment could not be released due to doctor-patient confidentiality, officials said.
"The most important part of the treatment is to isolate them during the time period when they could be infectious," Turco said. "You might be able to, with antivirals, to decrease the symptoms. But really the most important thing is to isolate someone who is infectious so they don't spread it to someone else."
Montero said it is impossible to know whether the Hanover Inn employee had infected any others with the H1N1 virus before he was treated.
The Public Health Department conducted an investigation and concluded that no one else in the Upper Valley had been infected by the employee, Turco said.
"Everything that needed to be done was done the moment it was suspected to be a probable case," he said.
Because of Dartmouth's strict protocols, many students who did not have the swine flu were treated as if they had contracted the virus out of caution, Turco said.
"What you want to do is make sure you set up a definition that was broad enough to make sure you can find people who have swine flu," Turco said. "But you know you're going to have a lot of people who don't end up having the specific virus."
New Hampshire health officials have also identified two new probable cases in the state, according Montero.
Samples from an adult in Rochester and a 10-year-old Bedford resident are currently being tested for the H1N1 virus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.
