CDC consulted about ill Duluth air passenger

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the OK Monday to send an Icelandic corporate plane on its way without testing an ill passenger for the swine flu, Guy Peterson, head of St. Louis County Public Health Services, said Tuesday.

A Gold Cross ambulance squad was dispatched Monday to Duluth International Airport after a woman on a Gulfstream corporate plane from Iceland reported flulike symptoms, said Brian Ryks, Airport Authority director. Medical personnel went aboard the plane and examined the woman, who was deemed “not that ill,” said Barbara Lambus, port director of Customs and Border Protection for Duluth.

The personnel determined she did not exhibit symptoms of the H1N1 — swine flu — virus, Peterson said. The incident was reported to local health officials, who gave them permission to contact the CDC, he said.

“The paramedic called the CDC people, told them the situation, and they said let them go,” Peterson said.

Lambus said the plane landed and departed within about 30 minutes with the woman aboard.

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