Orshe

With regular tallying of new cases of A/H1N1 swine flu — as of yesterday it had /a> around the world — you might think it’s pretty easy to find out if whatever you’ve come down with really is that strain of the flu.

Not necessarily. Just ask Joe Lauria (pictured), a correspondent who covers the United Nations for the WSJ. He had muscle aches, a cough, chills and a 102-degree fever two days after being stuck for hours in an airport. So he tried to find out where he could be tested for swine flu. He called the city’s 311 helpline, which told him to call the state health-department hotline, which told him to call his doctor, whose office was closed. Then he called an emergency room, which told him to call the city’s information line. You get the idea.

Lauria eventually ended up at Montefiore Medical Center, where he was put into isolation and recovered. But he still doesn’t know if he had swine flu. Read his /a> here.

New York’s capacity to test for swine flu may improve soon, however. The New York Times /a> that the city’s semi-secret biothreat response testing lab early this week will be able to determine if someone has swine flu within five and a half hours. Up to now, samples have had to be flown to the CDC in Atlanta, the only place in the world where testing has been done. The CDC has sent New York and some other health departments the ingredients to conclusively test for the flu, NYT says.

Photo: Corinna Barnard

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