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Swine Flu: 66 Confirmed U.S. Cases

At Least 5 People With Swine Flu Hospitalized, Says CDC

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD News Center

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

April 28, 2009 -- At least 66 people in the U.S. have been sickened by swine influenza ( swine flu), including five people who have been hospitalized, according to health officials.

The CDC today reported 64 lab-confirmed cases of swine flu:

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New York City: 45 cases
California: 10 cases (including three hospitalized patients)
Texas: 6 cases (including two hospitalized patients)
Kansas: 2 cases
Ohio: 1 case

The CDC's count doesn't include an eleventh California case confirmed by California's health department and another case in Indiana, confirmed by Indiana's health department.

The CDC updates its case count once a day, so there may be some lag time between a state's report and the CDC's daily tally, notes Richard Besser, MD, the CDC's acting director.

Despite recent hospitalizations, cases in the U.S. are still "milder" than those reported in Mexico, according to Besser.

But that could change. "I fully expect that we will see deaths from this infection," Besser said. He pointed out that ordinary seasonal flu can be deadly, killing about 36,000 people in a typical flu season.

Besser said that the median age of swine flu patients is 16, with patient ages ranging from 7 to 54. The earliest lab-confirmed case in the U.S. began on March 28 and the most recent one began on April 24. The virus appears to incubate for two to seven days, which is a typical time frame for a flu virus, Besser notes.

'Hundreds' More Possible Cases

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today said that "hundreds" more students in New York City may have swine flu.

Those cases, which haven't been confirmed, mainly include students at Saint Francis Preparatory School in Queens, where there have already been confirmed cases of swine flu.

Bloomberg says five other "probable" cases have been found in New York City, including a boy in the Bronx, who is recovering at a hospital.

But Bloomberg says all patients in New York with swine flu are improving and that so far swine flu is following the pattern of normal seasonal influenza -- "nothing worse, so far."

South Carolina reports "probable" swine flu in two high school students. South Carolina health officials have sent samples from those students to the CDC for further testing.

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