The cost of overtime, extra staff and supplies for responding to the first two weeks of swine flu is expected to hit at least $100,000, Snohomish Health District officials say.
Up to 75 of the public heath agency's staff of 210 employees were temporarily reassigned to swine flu duties, said Rick Mockler, deputy administrator the public health agency.
Much of the time was spent on tracking the virus, talking to sickened patients or people potentially exposed to them, and giving advice to swine flu patients so as to not expose others to it, he said.
The health district's expenses also include about $5,700 on supplies, including special medical masks, gowns and hand sanitizer, Mockler said.
The exact costs of the initial response to the virus are expected later this month, Mockler said.
The health district may get some money from the federal government to help pay for the extra costs of responding to swine flu, he said.
"What we're trying to do is stop the spread of disease," he said.
People exposed to swine flu were told what public health officials have been emphasizing since the beginning of the outbreak: The cycle of contagion can be stopped by frequent hand washing, covering your cough and staying home from work or school when ill.
It was a health district employee who broke the news to the family of a Snohomish County man that he had died from swine flu, said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer.
The man's swine flu-related death was announced on May 9. Neither the man's name nor his hometown have been disclosed.
Goldbaum said the initial response of public health officials to the virus was based on reports of illness and death from swine flu in Mexico.
Since it spread rapidly from person to person and there is no vaccine to protect people from it, health officials worried that it could have been far more deadly than seasonal flu, he said.
Goldbaum spent four to five hours every day conferring with public health officials, Mockler said.
Information was changing rapidly, sometimes hourly, Mockler said. "It was important to stay in sync."
Local public health officials also talked frequently with local school districts keeping them up to date, Mockler said.
This included a shift in policy from closing a school when a single case of swine flu was reported to asking parents to keep their children home from school when they were ill.
Since the virus has been found to be less dangerous than initially thought, the health district has closed its emergency operations center.
However, it will continue to monitor the number of confirmed swine flu causes, Mockler said.
