It was an asthmatic child with trouble breathing, who led local and state health professionals to begin planning for possible cases of Swine Flu on Orcas.

“A little after midnight on Friday morning we responded to the call about the child at Camp Orkila,” Orcas Island Fire and Rescue Division Chief and Paramedic Patrick Shepler said. “When we were in the bunkhouse, I could hear the other children coughing. I had been following the medical information on Swine Flu and became concerned that all six campers and a camp counselor seemed to be exhibiting signs of a viral illness.”

According to Camp Orkila Director Dimitri Stankevich, two Washington schools, one from Richland and one from Bellevue, had brought almost 350 children and counselors or a Tuesday through Friday program. As usual, a bunkhouse had been setup as an infirmary and the sick children had come from a variety of cabins throughout the camp with slightly differing symptoms.

“The six campers who came to the infirmary were all from the Bellevue school. Having six sick of 300 is not unusual,” Stankevich said. “The schools bring cabin counselors with them and two of them were also sick.”

Shepler was the first to realize the possibility of Swine Flu and had his team don facemasks. He discovered that the children in the infirmary were all running temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and contacted the lead physician for County Health and Human services, the San Juan County program director Dr. Mike Sullivan and Orcas pediatrician Dr. Evan Buxbaum.

Buxbaum administered a Rapid Flu Test that returned positive results. The results were sent on to the Atlanta Center for Disease Control to determine the type of flu. Those results won’t be known “for a day or two.”

Stankevich, his staff and the medical personnel began immediately working on the safest plan for getting all the campers back home. They had been originally scheduled to leave on Friday but the plan needed to be altered to make sure that everyone left the island without further risk.

State officials have said there are no cases of confirmed or suspected Swine Flu in San Juan County.

“There are suspected cases of Swine Flu on Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Island,” Buxbaum said. “There are samples awaiting testing, but nothing confirmed. Several surrounding counties have cases labeled highly likely and British Columbia has confirmed cases.

On Monday, May 4 the Salmonberry School voluntarily closed for seven days as a precautionary measure after a student developed a mild fever over the weekend according to Paul Freedman, the school director. About 30 preschool and elementary school children are affected by the closure which coincides with the incubation period for the flu.

“We are acting cautiously and proactively,” Freedman said. “Any other day or week, one student with a mild fever would not bring about this type of action on our part. But with the current climate, we are fortunate as a private school to make this decision on the side of caution.”

People shouldn’t panic. It appears the flu may not be as severe as was originally thought. It has all the classic signs of other flu: cough, sore throat, high fever, and some patients also experience vomiting and diarrhea.

“It is a flu, we’ve all them, and people know if they get it, they are going to feel sick. Most important to protecting yourself are to wash hands frequently, cover your mouth when coughing and protect others by staying home if you feel sick,” Buxbaum said.

Additional information on precautionary methods to avoid the flu, symptoms of Swine Flu and treatment is available at www.IslandsSounder.com and www.sanjuanco.com/health/swineflu.aspx.

If this turns out to be something with a significant impact on local people, Buxbaum says the San Juan Islands will have access, through the state, to the needed antiviral medication.

“All the medical practices on the island have met, and we are planning to take a unified approach to deal with any cases,” he said. We’re fortunately at an early stage. We are hoping that the impact won’t be bad, but we are ready to help people if it is.”

He said that they don’t know enough about the disease and how it will play out yet. The reports from Mexico seem to indicate that the disease has been hitting healthy adults more than other age groups.

Camp Orkila voluntarily closed over this past weekend. They cancelled the arrivals expected on Friday evening. Stankevich has instructed his staff to immediately report any cold or flu symptoms and has set aside separate cabins for anyone that does. So far, there have been no flu symptoms among the camp staff. They reopen the camp to normal operations on Wednesday, May 6 with the, “blessing of the San Juan County medical director John Manning and the State Department of Health.”

Stankevich said that the handful of staff that had been exposed to the sick children and counselors would voluntarily continue in their various levels of isolation through Friday.

“It was Shepler’s clinical instincts that led to everyone becoming aware this early on that we had a situation of possible concern that needed to be addressed and planned for,” Buxbaum said.

For a Guest Column from island doctors on Swine Flu, visit our opinion section.