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GREENSBORO — Triad health professionals are warning people to take flulike symptoms seriously in the wake of a number of H1N1 virus cases.

Moses Cone Health System spokesman Doug Allred and Guilford County public officials stressed Friday that flulike symptoms now, well outside of flu season, should be heeded and treated immediately.

“There are growing numbers of people with flu symptoms in the community,” Allred said in a statement to the media and posted on Cone’s Web site Friday. “Anyone with flulike symptoms at this time likely has H1N1. They should stay at home, drink plenty of fluids, treat their symptoms with over-the-counter medications, avoid contacts with others and contact their personal physician if necessary.”

Four cases of swine flu were confirmed in Greensboro this week. None of the patients is being identified because of medical privacy concerns.

Guilford County has had six cases of H1N1, or swine flu, since the rare influenza virus was identified several months ago.

The most alarming was this week’s case of a respiratory therapist with the Moses Cone Health System who unknowingly exposed 33 babies at The Women’s Hospital after she was infected by an emergency room patient.

As of late Friday, none of the babies had any symptoms. As a preventative measure the hospital is treating them with Tamiflu, a drug that blocks the spread of influenza. Their health is being monitored closely.

Allred said the hospital has given Tamiflu to 156 people who could have been exposed to the virus.

One of those confirmed cases was an emergency room patient at Moses Cone and another a patient at The Women’s Hospital.

Both patients were believed to have been sick when they arrived at the hospital.

The respiratory therapist who treated the emergency room patient tested positive on Thursday — the same day that a UNCG student tested positive at the campus’ health center.

The student was the second at UNCG to test positive for the virus, though the cases are believed to be unrelated.

The student who tested positive Thursday lives and works off campus. UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady sent a letter to students, staff and faculty Thursday.

“Please remember that the best protection against this flu is good personal hygiene,” Brady said in the letter. “These practices include thorough hand washing with warm water and soap, or alcohol-based hand sanitizers; covering coughs and sneezes with a disposable tissue or by coughing or sneezing into a bended elbow or sleeve; and practicing social distancing by staying home away from others if sick.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the number of confirmed and probable H1N1 cases Friday morning.

The count has risen from 18,000 cases last week to 21,449 this week.

Deaths have nearly doubled from 44 last week to 87 as of Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com