Enjoy the County Fair ... and stay healthy!

The Delaware Gen­eral Health Dis­trict wants to invite every­one to enjoy the Delaware County Fair. With a few sim­ple pre­cau­tions Delaware County Fair vis­i­tors can also stay healthy and avoid get­ting the newest form of swine flu.

One main pre­cau­tion is to wash your hands after vis­it­ing ani­mal exhibits. If you have a health con­di­tion that makes you sus­cep­ti­ble to severe com­pli­ca­tions from flu, you should con­sider remain­ing out­side the swine building.

More than a third of the nearly 300 reported cases of influenza A H3N2 vari­ant, or H3N2v, have occurred in Ohio. Many of the cases have been in peo­ple show­ing pigs at agri­cul­tural fairs. One per­son has died in the state. There have been no con­firmed cases in Delaware and local offi­cials would like it to stay that way.

The Delaware Gen­eral Health Dis­trict is work­ing with the Delaware County Fair Board to post signs on the fair­grounds list­ing pre­cau­tions to take. The Health Dis­trict also is pro­vid­ing hand-washing and hand-sanitizing sta­tions dur­ing this year’s fair. And vis­i­tors should look for vol­un­teer youth who will dis­trib­ute Health Dis­trict sup­plied hand san­i­tizer to remind vis­i­tors to wash or san­i­tize their hands before enjoy­ing fair food.

Ani­mals can carry germs, and some­times those germs can make peo­ple sick. This appears to be the case with H3N2v. Pigs – like peo­ple – get the flu and spread the dis­ease among each other when they cough, spew­ing flu germs about the pig­pen. Peo­ple can catch H3N2v from con­tact with the pigs or con­t­a­m­i­nated sur­faces (but not by eat­ing pork). No vac­cine against H3N2v is presently available.

The Delaware Gen­eral Health Dis­trict recommends:

• Know that ani­mals carry germs that can make peo­ple sick.

• Never eat, drink or put things into your mouth in ani­mal areas.

• Older adults, preg­nant women and young chil­dren should be extra care­ful around animals.

• Wash your hands thor­oughly with soap and water right after vis­it­ing the ani­mal area. Use alcohol-based hand san­i­tizer if soap and water are not available.

• Please remem­ber that not only can pigs carry flu to humans, humans can also carry flu to pigs and make them sick. Avoid con­tact with pigs if you have flu-like symptoms.

Posted by Gary Henery on Sep 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.