Williston's Mercy Medical Center is restricting visitation to its obstetrics floor to protect pregnant women, newborns and their families from the flu.

James Moe of Mercy's Infection Control said visitation on the OB floor is restricted to one significant other person. Mercy marketing and communications manager Leslie Sullivan said in most cases, the father of the baby would be the designated visitor.

"If it is a single person, whoever the patient would select would be designated," Sullivan said.

These steps are being taken, "Because pregnant women and newborns are at higher risk for the H1N1," Moe said.

The safeguard is something hospital officials talked about to be proactive in dealing with this year's flu season, Moe said. This year's flu is more challenging because of the H1N1 virus, which struck early this fall and appears to be causing significant issues for youth. Sullivan said the OB visitation restrictions took effect Wednesday morning. Moe said whether or not the hospital implements any more guidelines in this regard depends, "on how long the virus sticks around and how it is behaving."

The North Dakota Department of Health Web page states Williams County still has seen just two H1N1 cases so far, while McKenzie, Divide and Burke counties remain free of H1N1 cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site states North Dakota is now included as one of 41 states reporting widespread influenza activity.

As part of its OB safeguards, Moe said the pregnant mother and significant other are to be screened for flu symptoms when they are admitted to the hospital.

"If the symptoms are present, we will take appropriate actions to prevent the spread to mothers and others on the OB floor," he said.

Hospital officials also are encouraging "rooming in" on the OB floor.

"Basically, we're encouraging the mothers to keep the babies and their significant others as much as possible," he said of having people stay at the hospital. "We have chairs that fold down into beds."

Moe said the reason for encouraging individuals to stay at the hospital until discharge is if the mother and father/significant other are symptom free upon admission, they should stay that way. If the father/significant other were to leave the facility, they could contract flu symptoms and bring them into the hospital after the initial admission evaluation, he said.

The hospital also is restricting individuals from visiting patients at the hospital if they have flu-like symptoms such as fever, sore throat, cough and body aches, Moe said.

"We're asking that the public practice what we are preaching," he said. "If we happen to notice an increase in sick individuals coming up here and not following our recommendations, maybe something further will need to be done."

Sullivan said there are signs posted around the Mercy complex encouraging people to avoid visiting patients if the visitors are ill. The hospital also has face masks and alcohol-based hand rubs at entrances for the general public to use.

Mercy has not yet had anyone hospitalized as a result of the H1N1 virus, Moe said. Sullivan said there is, however, an increase of patients over the past week and a half coming to the facility emergency room with flu symptoms.

She said Mercy's Cravan-Hagen Clinic also is seeing more people calling with questions about the flu.

"I think part of that is just community awareness of H1N1," she said.

Moe said people also continue to call about when more vaccine is to be available. He said it is not yet known when Mercy is to receive its next H1N1 vaccine.

"They are notifying us when the vaccine has been allocated to us and then it generally takes a week for shipment," Moe said.

When Mercy does get its next vaccine, it will prioritize pregnant women and children age 6 months to 18 years old.