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Nursing homes are reducing activities and screening guests at the door in order to curb the possiblity of swine flu, which has yet to make its way to those facilities. Still, the possibility scares administrators.
For the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, responding to the swine flu threat mirrored his experiences as a colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.
Northern areas are shown to have lower levels of vitamin D, an immune system booster. Some experts say that makes Chicagoans more vulnerable to swine flu and similar illnesses.
Confirmed cases of swine flu in Chicago and the state continue to rise, as Chicago Public Schools officials declare Kilmer Elementary open. It was closed last week after a 12-year-old student came down with swine flu symptoms.
Swine flu numbers in Chicago continue to rise, and a team from the federal Centers for Disease Control has arrived here to study the virus. Despite rising numbers, officials are optimistic that the disease is waning.
City officials continue to be cautious, hammering a message of calm and prevention, urging people to wash their hands, cover their coughs and sneezes and teach those habits to others.
With swine flu cases on the rise, Illinois health officials expect to have more than 600,000 regimens of antiviral drugs on hand by week's end, for hospitals and health clinics statewide.
The city's message of prevention and preparedness is the right one, experts say. But more needs to be done to reach key audiences, like college students, as Illinois battles a swine flu outbreak.