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By The Skanner News | The Skanner News
Published: 29 April 2009

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ State health officials have identified six more probable cases of swine flu, increasing the number of Oregonians likely hit with the illness to 11.
Dr. Mel Kohn, acting director of the Oregon Public Health Division, said the probable cases are in Multnomah, Washington, Polk, Lane, Wallowa, Umatilla and Marion counties and include three children, two teenagers and six adults.
The state says none of the 11 is believed to have been hospitalized. There are 197 confirmed cases of swine flu in the U.S. and only one person, a toddler from Mexico seeking medical treatment in Houston, has died from swine flu.
"We certainly have not been seeing a wave of very severe illness,'' Kohn said.
In the United States each year, human flu causes an estimated 36,000 deaths, mostly among the elderly and very young. About 200,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized each year because of flu complications.
Kohn said 544,000 doses of anti-viral drugs were issued to the state Saturday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Like other states, Oregon is receiving a quarter of the stockpile that the federal government is holding for each state. Face masks, gloves and gowns are also provided to the states.
Kohn said a portion of Oregon's allotment has been distributed to the state's 36 counties.
"At this time I'm not anticipating that those are going to be used or at least be used in a big way,'' he said.
A young Multnomah County woman's illness was the first reported probable case of swine flu in Oregon. It was reported Thursday morning. Officials said it is believed the woman became ill Sunday after two members of her extended family returned from Mexico, where they had contact with someone suffering serious respiratory illness. The Multnomah County woman was not hospitalized.
About a third of the confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal officials have told the state that 95 percent of the people who have preliminary test results like the Multnomah County woman's turn out to have swine flu.
Several Oregon school districts have closed schools, including the North Bend, Willamina and Central schools.
The Western Oregon University campus was closed after one of its students came down with a probable case of swine flu. The CDC is expected to confirm Monday whether the student has a confirmed case.


Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and government officials:
• Deaths: 19 confirmed in Mexico and one confirmed in U.S., a 21-month-old boy from Mexico who died in Texas.
• Confirmed sickened worldwide, 872: 506 in Mexico; 197 in U.S.; 85 in Canada; 40 in Spain; 16 in Britain; eight in Germany; four in New Zealand; two in Italy, France, Israel, and South Korea; one each in Colombia; Costa Rica, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong, Denmark and the Netherlands.
• U.S. confirmed cases: New York 50; Texas 28; California 24; Arizona 17; South Carolina 13; Delaware 10; Massachusetts eight; New Jersey seven; Maine six; Wisconsin three; Ohio three; Indiana three; Illinois three; Kansas two; Colorado two; Virginia two; Michigan two; Missouri two; Connecticut two; Florida two; New Hampshire one; Utah one; Rhode Island one; Iowa one; Kentucky one; Minnesota one; Nebraska one; Nevada one.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about a third of confirmed U.S. cases are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there.
• Hong Kong, where severe acute respiratory syndrome killed 299 in 2003, ordered weeklong quarantine of downtown hotel where a Mexican tourist was confirmed to have the illness, trapping 350 guests and employees inside. The tourist was in stable condition Sunday.
• Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa complained that China had isolated several Mexicans without reason -- and urged Mexicans not to travel to China until the situation was resolved.
• Mexico ordered all nonessential government and private businesses to shut down for five days. All 176 weekend soccer games in Mexico were closed to fans.
• More than 430 U.S. schools had closed, affecting about 245,000 children in 18 states. Chicago Public Schools officials say students who come to school with cough and fever starting Monday will be sent home and required to stay there for at least seven days.
• Three wild boars at Baghdad's zoo were killed because of swine flu fears, an Iraqi health official said Sunday. Iraq has no documented cases of swine flu. Egypt ordered slaughter of all the country's 300,000 pigs.
• World Health Organization said slaughtering pigs unnecessary because virus is being spread through humans, and it says a swine herd in Alberta likely was infected by a farm worker who returned from Mexico.
• U.S. Meat Export Federation, which represents pork and beef interests abroad, estimates that U.S. pork exports have dropped about 10 percent since the swine flu scare started.

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