CBS4 RTV4 WHBF Quad Cities, IL / IA News Weather SportsFlu Fears Spread In Iowa and Illinois
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In Iowa, about 150 cases are being tested for swine flu, or H1N1, but so far no cases of the illness have been confirmed.
State health officials say those tests have been forwarded to the University Hygienic Laboratory in Iowa City.
Health department spokeswoman Polly Carver-Kimm says that if tests at the lab meet certain criteria, a case would be classified as probable and forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.
One case is in the Waterloo area, where local health officials say a person showed up a a hospital or clinic Tuesday evening with symptoms that met the definition of the virus.
Meanwhile, the head of the Illinois Department of Public Health says the state has logged nine probable cases of the H1N1, or swine flu virus, all in northern Illinois.
Dr. Damon Arnold says five of the probable cases are in Chicago, while two are in Kane County and single cases are being reported in both Lake and DuPage counties.
The people diagnosed range in age from 2 to 57.
Arnold says all of the cases so far have been mild and nobody has been hospitalized.
Arnold appeared at a news conference Wednesday called in the wake of Chicago's decision to close an elementary school after one student there was found to have a probable case of swine flu.
Nearly 100 cases of swine flu, also known as H1N1, have been confirmed in 10 states.
A young child in Texas died from the illness, which has killed 159 in Mexico.
