Political blog

The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms says four summer pages are exhibiting symptoms similar to swine flu and have been quarantined.

Pages must be high school juniors and at least 16 years old. They serve primarily as messengers. The current class numbers 50 pages.

Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says that the Senate’s Office of Attending Physician will not test the pages for the H1N1 virus because the accuracy of the tests is poor and because it would not alter the treatment plan.

Gainer, in a message to the senators and their staffs late Tuesday, said two of the pages were improving and were expected to return to work Wednesday. Two others fell ill on Tuesday.