Flu cases increase in United States, still awaiting 9 Nevada results

By Mary Manning

Published Monday, May 4, 2009 | 11:14 a.m.

Updated Monday, May 4, 2009 | 5:20 p.m.

The 2009 flu cases continue to rise in the United States, but Nevada is awaiting results of nine new samples taken from patients in southern and northern ends of the state.

Until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Atlanta confirms those probably cases, Nevada had had one confirmed case in a 2-year-old Reno girl, said Martha Framsted, spokesman for the Nevada State Health Division.

In addition, state health officials adopted guidelines for school closures, which the CDC issued over the weekend, Framsted said. There are no mandatory closures or border closures, but federal guidelines recommend that schools close for up to 14 days if a student is confirmed with the new 2009 H1N1 flu virus.

The CDC laboratory has been overwhelmed with swabs taken from potential patients of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, health officials said today.

In Nevada one 2-year-old Reno girl has been confirmed with the flu, but five other samples from Clark County, three from Washoe County and one from Carson City are still awaiting analysis at the federal laboratory.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that today there are 279 new confirmed cases up from 226 reported on Sunday. The new, unusual flu has been found in 36 states, up from 30 identified on Sunday, CDC officials said.

"In virtually all of the United States, the virus is circulating," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for Science and Public Health at CDC. "I expect the numbers to jump quite a bit in the next few days."

The United State has still not decided whether to proceed with developing a flu vaccine against this specific virus, which combines fragments of flu from pigs, birds and humans. President Barack Obama said he would support a decision made by federal health officials.

The regular flu season kills 36,000 United States residents a year. So far, the new virus has killed a 23-month-old Mexican boy visiting relatives in Texas.

Federal health officials are cautiously optimistic that the new flu outbreak may taper off during the summer months, but said it could either die off or reappear at the start of the fall flu season.

Depending on what happens to the virus over the course of the summer, it could become more virulent, causing severe symptoms in a wide range of people, health officials said. This outbreak has generally produced mild symptoms in relatively young people in their 20s, teens and children.