Minnesota watches for flu; no cases yet

State health officials are asking doctors and hospitals to submit specimens for testing.

By STEVE ALEXANDER, Star Tribune

Last update: April 27, 2009 - 6:40 AM

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There have been no confirmed cases of swine flu in Minnesota, but state health officials said Sunday that they will continue to test people with flu-like symptoms and expect to find some cases.

Minnesota health officials stressed that while the swine flu is suspected in more than 103 deaths in Mexico, so far it has caused only mild illness in the United States, where 20 cases have been confirmed.

"We don't want people to panic," Dr. Ruth Lynfield, Minnesota state epidemiologist, said at a news conference in St. Paul. "This has not been severe here."

But Minnesota officials continue to monitor the situation because of concerns that the swine flu virus could mutate into a more harmful form, causing a second or third wave of more serious infections, Lynfield said.

Since Thursday, the state Health Department has been asking hospitals and doctors in the state "to submit specimens for testing if they have any patients with the kind of respiratory symptoms that typically characterize influenza." Health care providers also are asked to contact the agency if their patients have flu-like symptoms and have been to Mexico or states in the United States with flu outbreaks.

Part of the problem facing health officials nationwide is that there are too few infections in the United States to give them a good understanding of how this version of the swine flu virus works, Lynfield said. For example, there is still no good explanation of why U.S. infections have been mild while deaths have been reported in Mexico.

Asked whether state officials are considering screening people returning to Minnesota from Mexico, Lynfield said screening airline passengers probably wouldn't be effective because a person can be contagious for a full day before showing any symptoms of the swine flu.

Others agree. "There is no evidence that screening passengers really makes any difference, unless they are visibly sick," said Michael Osterholm, a former state epidemiologist who is now director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Only federal authorities have the jurisdiction to screen airline passengers for disease, Lynfield said. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is expected to release new guidelines for U.S. travel to Mexico, perhaps as soon as today.

A spokesman for Delta Air Lines, now the corporate parent of Northwest Airlines, said the airlines haven't altered their flights to Mexico or the way passengers are routinely observed for illness before they board. Northwest has one daily flight to Mexico City, while Delta has eight, said Delta spokesman Anthony Black in Atlanta.

Officials of Sun Country Airlines, which flies to five cities in Mexico, could not be reached.

Multiple U.S. airlines, however, are waiving change fees for passengers flying through Mexico because of the outbreak.

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553