Flu strikes Navajo
First case reported in Dinétah, victim fully recovered

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Independent staff

WINDOW ROCK — Indian Health Service officials have reported the first case of H1NI virus on the Navajo Nation.

The victim of the virus, also known as swine flu, lives in Arizona.

“The patient was treated within the past week and fully recovered,” said Dr. Douglas Peter, chief medical officer for the Navajo Area Indian Health service.

Jennie Notah, a spokeswoman for the Navajo area IHS, said that because of federal privacy laws, IHS officials could not give out much information about the patient.

She did say the victim was not of school age but would not give out the name of the community where the victim lived.

She said she also did not know how the victim may have come in contact with the disease.

As of Monday afternoon, IHS officials had identified no other victims of the disease on the reservation.

As of Monday, 2,618 cases had been confirmed in the United States, the most of any country in the world. A total of 182 cases were reported in Arizona and another 44 in New Mexico.

As far as suspected cases of the virus, state health officials in both Arizona and New Mexico report that there are suspected cases that are waiting to see if they can be confirmed as the H1N1 virus but whether these are in this area or not has not been reported.

Symptoms of the disease are a fever of 101 degrees F. or above, cough, sore throat, headache, body aches, chills and extreme fatigue.

For more details of how many cases have been reported in each state, go to cdc.gov for up-to-the-minute tallies.