The number of probable swine flu cases continues to grow in Snohomish County, with health officials saying on Sunday that 10 children and adults now appear to have the disease.
The four new probable cases of swine flu in Snohomish County involve a 38-year-old man, two 13-year old girls and a 20-year-old woman, said Suzanne Pate, a Snohomish Health District spokeswoman. No further details were available Sunday evening.
On Saturday, health officials said that a Bothell woman, 24, appeared to have the disease as well.
These are in addition to the five probable cases announced last week in Snohomish County.
One school, Jackson Elementary, is scheduled to be closed today because of concerns that a student may have swine flu. The school may reopen Tuesday, said Mary Waggoner, a spokeswoman for Everett Public Schools.
Odyssey Elementary School south of Everett will reopen today after being closed Friday. The mother of a student at the school was suspected of having swine flu. Janitors spent Friday sterilizing the school, said Andy Muntz, a Mukilteo School District spokesman.
An Everett Community College cosmetology school in Marysville will also reopen today.
The increase in Snohomish County followed statewide and national trends. Washington now has 36 probable cases, although none of these cases has yet been confirmed.
Washington health officials expect to hear from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week on whether any of probable cases tested so far are confirmed as swine flu.
“It’s hard to say what’s going to happen,” Donn Moyer, a state Department of Health spokesman said Sunday evening. “We were confident that there would be cases in Washington; the pace and number isn’t particularly surprising, either high or low, because it’s so unpredictable.”
In Washington, probable swine flu cases are being reported up and down the I-5 corridor in the Puget Sound region, with one case in Pierce County, 22 in King County, 10 in Snohomish County and one in Skagit County.
The state’s other two probable cases are in Spokane County.
Nationally, the disease has now officially spread to 35 states, with 245 confirmed cases, federal health officials said Sunday.
So far, there has only been one confirmed death in the U.S., a toddler from Mexico.
In British Columbia, Michelle Stewart of the B.C. Health Ministry said seven new cases were reported, bringing the total of confirmed cases in the province as of Sunday to 29.
Oregon reported three confirmed cases, with another 19 probable cases. The CDC on Sunday reported one confirmed case in a Kootenai County woman in northern Idaho.
Truckloads of medication and other supplies began arriving in Washington over the weekend as a precaution in case they are needed to treat people with the flu, known as the H1N1 strain.
The supplies are from the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile and include enough antiviral medication — Tamiflu and Relenza — to treat about 230,000 people, the Health Department said. The medications must be prescribed, the department said.
“It’s important to know that these antivirals will be used to fill prescriptions to treat people who are sick only if commercial supplies run out,” state Secretary of Health Mary Selecky said.
At least one of the Washington victims — a Seattle boy — was hospitalized because of the illness, but other cases were reported to be relatively mild.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486,salyer@heraldnet.com.
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