Dr Stephen Bridgman said Guernsey was not "complacent" and needed to carry out the extra tests because people with symptoms may find the flu carries strains of the swine virus in the background.

BBC: Island swine flu tests stepped up

Public health officials are simply assuming that anyone with flu symptoms has swine flu, because it's the only form of the virus in circulation, he said.

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"We have people without symptoms going into the emergency rooms asking to be screened for swine flu at the expense of people with real illness, " said Cathy Gichema, a nurse in Pikesville, Maryland.

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Except for hospitalized patients, others with flu-like symptoms are not being tested to confirm they have swine flu, since "virtually all of the influenza that's circulating right now in the United States is the 2009 H1N1 strain, " Schuchat said.

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