No confirmed swine flu in Orlando, Florida Hospital says

At a rushed press conference, Florida Hospital's vice president Dr. Scott Brady said there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in Orlando.

"In this case, if it was implied that it was swine flu, that was a misstatement," Brady said. "We have not had any confirmations from the CDC. We've had two or three cases of positive influenza. We should know about these in 48 hours."


An e-mail sent by one of Florida Hospital's top doctors sent health officials into a flurry today because he incorrectly confirmed the first case of the deadly swine flu in Orlando.

In the e-mail, Dr. Loran Hauck, Chief Medical Officer at Florida Hospital said, "a case was diagnosed here in Orlando today on a tourist from Mexico who came to Disney attractions two days ago to visit."

Ros said a tourist in Orlando was tested and the results are not back from the labs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is the only agency that can test for the particular strain of influenza that develops into swine flu.

Officials at Walt Disney World would not comment and referred all calls to the health officials.

Swine flu has killed 152 people in Mexico and thousands are hospitalized with influenza-like symptoms, the latest reports show. Mexico is suspected of being the center of the outbreak.


There are 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States, mostly in New York.

Brady said the tourist met the criteria of being at risk because he had been in Mexico or had contact with someone from Mexico. State health officials are looking into the connection with Mexico.

So far, Florida Hospital Centra Care clinics have sent three swabs to the CDC labs in Jacksonville, officials said. They wouldn't say if it was from same person or three different people.

It will take about 48 hours to determine if the sub-type of influenza is the swine flu.

"We have released one suspect case that was sent to a state lab for testing and we're waiting to see what that is," Orange County Health Department spokesman Dain Weister said. "There may be more than one [case]. Any influenza-like cases are being sent and being looked at."

According to a Monday afternoon update posted by the CDC, there were no confirmed human cases of the swine flu infection in Florida.