Flu Hotline Has Received More Than 400 Calls

More than 400 South Carolinians have called 211 since Friday looking for answers to their questions about the H1N1 flu.

“The most common question is what are the symptoms?“ says 211 staffer Dominic Ervolina. The answer: fever, achiness, lack of energy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with the flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

“Second most common is how do I clean up? How do I get my workplace or my home or where I’m going clean if somebody’s had a confirmed case of swine flu? Our suggestion is you use Lysol wipes or any other kind of disinfecting wipe that has ‘kills flu virus’ on it. As long as it has that, it’ll kill the virus. You’ll be safe,“ he says.

The United Way staffs the 211 call centers but uses information from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control for the answers to callers’ questions.

The call volume has required 16 staffers to answer phones around the clock at three call centers.

A spokesman for DHEC says the hotline has provided the agency with valuable information, letting it know what questions people have. Some have been unexpected. Ervolina says, “The question that got me was is fresh food from Mexico safe? And fresh food from Mexico is totally safe. There’s not any virus in Mexican food.“

DHEC’s latest update on Monday afternoon had 16 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu—15 in Newberry County and 1 in Laurens County—and 12 probable cases. All of the confirmed cases are associated with Newberry Academy, a private school where 13 seniors went on a senior trip to Cancun, Mexico April 16-20.

Newberry County also has 4 of the probable cases, Laurens County has 3, Greenville County has 2 and Anderson, Fairfield and Charleston counties have one each.