Swine flu toll in Ohio rises to 5; direct testing to begin this week

By DOUG CARUSO

COLUMBUS — Two additional cases of swine flu were confirmed in Ohio on Tuesday as federal officials announced that the first U.S. resident, a woman in Texas, has died after contracting the virus.

Both Ohio patients — 39-year-old women in Holmes and Portage counties — already have recovered and have left isolation, health officials said. No one close to them has shown any symptoms.

Tuesday’s announcements brought the number of confirmed cases in Ohio to five. The others are two Franklin County men, ages 31 and 33, one of them an employee of Ohio State University Medical Center, and a 9-year-old Elyria boy.

But they also showed that some confirmations are coming so slowly that patients have already recovered by the time federal epidemiologists identify the virus.

Health officials say some delays are to be expected because the CDC lab in Atlanta is busy testing samples sent in from across the country. They say that by quickly isolating and treating patients and those who have had close contact with them — even before a test confirms a positive or negative result — they’ve helped to limit the spread of the virus.

Still, there’s room to speed up testing.

Ohio Department of Health officials say they expect to begin direct testing later this week. Jay Carey, a department spokesman, said that could cut the time it takes to get results to 24 hours instead of 48 to 72 hours.

On Monday, CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser said test kits had been sent to every state.

“We’re waiting on the CDC and they’re, like everyone else, kind of busy right now,” Carey said. “It’s certainly in their interest to get this out to the states.”

Right now, the state’s lab can determine whether someone is likely to have swine flu and can also rule it out, but it can’t confirm that the infection is caused by the H1N1 virus.

In Columbus, an Ohio State University student is listed as a probable case. He’s been isolated on campus since Friday and likely will remain so through Thursday, said Shelly Hoffman, an OSU spokeswoman.

About 99 percent of probable cases are confirmed as swine flu, the CDC says.

Ohio has one other probable case, a man in Butler County, according to the state health department.

In Portage County, the 39-year-old woman whose case was confirmed Tuesday sought treatment after she felt sick for two days, said county Health Commissioner DuWayne Porter.

“We sent the sample on April 28, so it has taken us seven days to get that information,” he said.