H1N1 flu : 8 more probable cases ID’d, 5 in metro

Eight more suspected cases of the new flu virus were identified in Minnesota on Friday, bringing the total for the first full week of the outbreak to nine.

The Minnesota Department of Health said that three of the new cases are from Hennepin County, and one each is from Dakota, Wright, Polk, Scott and Isanti counties.

None of the people who contracted the new H1N1 virus required hospitalization. All are at home and expected to make a full recovery, health officials said late Friday night.

That means, they said, that the new flu which is rapidly evolving into a global flu pandemic, is so far behaving like standard seasonal influenza.

The new cases have not yet been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the new H1N1 type that is spreading rapidly around the world. The samples have been forwarded to the CDC, but the final results will not be available for a day or two, officials said.

To date, the department has tested 229 samples and more than 110 are in process. Only one case in Cold Spring has been confirmed by the CDC as H1N1, but there is a 95 percent chance the others will also test positive. Health officials said they expect to find yet more cases as they continue testing.

Again, Health Commissioner Dr. Danne Magnan reminded Minnesotans to follow prudent infection control practices, which include frequent hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes. She also added for the first time on Friday that "employers need to insist that their employees stay home if they are ill with flu-like symptoms."

Earlier on Friday, state health officials said an unidentified adult who lives in Isanti County was the second probable case of the new strain of swine flu. As in the state's first case, from Cold Spring, the Isanti County patient had mild symptoms, was not hospitalized and is expected to fully recover. No schools or other facilities were closed.

A team of disease investigators was dispatched to Isanti County to try to determine where the infection originated, whether the person had traveled to Mexico -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- or had been exposed to someone who had.

After a week of intense surveillance, state investigators still have no sign that either of the Minnesota patients passed the infection to anyone else.

"So far it appears to be mild," said Kristen Ehresmann, director of infectious disease for the Minnesota Department of Health. "But there is always a possibility the virus could change, and it could get more severe, or we have a lull for a while, and then have a second wave."

The new strain of flu is believed to have killed 159 people in Mexico (with 15 deaths confirmed as flu deaths) and sickened 592 worldwide with 155 cases in this country.

Unusual patterns

So far, Ehresmann noted, the CDC has analyzed 450 cases of the new flu strain and found some unusual patterns.

More than half of those infected, 61 percent, are younger than 18. That's partly because of the large outbreak among New York City schoolchildren who contracted the virus on a recent trip to Mexico. Most of the nine people who were hospitalized were children with underlying health problems, she said. Surprisingly, few severe cases occurred in people older than 50, she said. Seasonal influenza, on the other hand, tends to be more severe in older people.

In another unusual finding, incubation appears to last between one and five days, Ehresmann said. But no one in the group began showing symptoms in two or three days. All were either one, four or five days, she said. At this point, officials don't know if that's significant

Friday morning's news about the second probable case in Isanti County prompted a little flurry of activity at health care facilities in the area.

The Cambridge Medical Center received many more phone calls than usual, but only slightly more patients than average, said Tim Burke, spokesman for Allina Hospitals and Clinics, which owns the hospital there.

"The phone calls are definitely up," he said. "News is out that we have a possible [case] and people are more sensitive to it."

Health officials on Friday opened a hot line that Minnesotans can call for information or to report problems. That number is 1-800-657-3903.

Josephine Marcotty • 612 673 7394