Confirmed H1N1 swine flu cases top 400 in U.S., 21 suspected and 7 confirmed cases in King County

The number of confirmed cases of influenza H1N1 or “swine flu” in the U.S. now stands at 403, and health officials have identified another 700 “probable” cases, which await laboratory confirmation,  the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

In King County, seven cases have now been confirmed and 21 suspected cases are awaiting laboratory confirmation, Public Health – Seattle & King County reported.

Most of the cases have not involved severe illness; nationwide on 35 cases have been hospitalized and there has been only one death. 

In King County, only two of the 28 confirmed and suspected cases required hospitalization and both have since been discharged and are recovering, Public Health – Seattle & King County reports.

“The good news,” U.S. Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius said on a Webcast CDC briefing Tuesday, “is that the virus does not seem to be as severe as we once thought it could be based on the early studies out of Mexico.”

Early reports from Mexico indicated that the illnesses were severe and, unlike typical seasonal influenza, has hitting young, health adults particularly hard.

While, as in Mexico, most of the cases in the U.S. were young, 62 percent being under age 18, the illnesses generally have been mild to moderate.

But further investigation of the outbreak in Mexico suggests that there have been many mild illnesses in Mexico as well, CDC Acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser said in the Webcast. 

“What we’re learning is that the picture there was not very different from what is seems we’re seeing here,” Dr. Besser said.

In general, the new virus is behaving more like the typical seasonal flu that strikes every fall and winter and not like more dangerous viruses that have caused severe pandemics in the past, Besser said.

As a result, prevention efforts can be scaled back and extraordinary measures, such as school closures, are no longer recommended, he said.

(Four schools that had been closed in the Seattle area after students had fallen ill with suspected H1N1 influenza have now been reopened.)

Besser said people should now treat this flu like any seasonal flu by protecting themselves and others by washing their hands frequently, covering their coughs with their sleeves, and staying home for seven days should they come down with the flu.

Seasonal influenza is still a dangerous disease, killing 36,000 Americans on average every year, he noted.

Cases of the new H1N1 flu are expected to taper off in the U.S. as summer approaches ending the flu season, but the virus is expected to spread into the Southern Hemisphere where the flu season is beginning and then return to the U.S. in the fall.

Secretary Sebelius said a vaccine against H1N1 can be ready in the U.S. by then: the virus has been isolated, cultured and sent to vaccine manufacturers, who have accelerated the production of already planned seasonal flu vaccine so that they will be “ready to go” should government experts decide the vaccine is necessary.

To learn more:

• Listen to the CDC Webcast briefing with Sec. Sebelius and Dr. Besser.
• Read the CDC’s latest flu guidance for schools

Tags: 2009/H1N1, A/H1N1, CDC, Flu, H1N1, Influenza, Influenza A, King County, Schools, Seattle, Swine Flu, Washington

Category: Influenza