Published: April 29, 2009 04:25 pm      

Iowa investigating 2 probable cases of swine flu

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Chet Culver says the state has two probable cases of swine flu.

Speaking Wednesday at a Statehouse news conference, Culver told reporters that officials would know Thursday if the cases are swine flu.

Officials say one case was from a California resident who visited Scott and Clinton counties last week. The other was a woman who returned from Mexico and traveled through Johnson, Des Moines and Muscatine counties.

State Medical Director Patricia Quinlisk says both of the people infected were now recovering.

Polly Carver-Kimm, a state health department spokeswoman, said about 150 tests have been received at the state hygienic laboratory. Of those, 40 have been processed, with two forwarded on to the Centers for Disease Control for further testing. Officials will know sometime tomorrow whether the two people have tested positive for the swine flu, which is now being called H1N1 flu by health officials. If tests at the state lab meet a certain criteria, cases are classified as probable and sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.

Pat Blake, a spokeswoman for the hygienic laboratory, said 1,400 specimen collection tubes have been distributed statewide and an increasing number are being returned each day.

“The number we’re getting back is ramping up quickly,” she said.

Blake said that under normal circumstances, test results can be returned the same day the sample is received. She said a delay is expected with the “surge in testing.”

She and Carver-Kimm said the CDC is the only lab in the country now doing confirmatory tests for the virus but that the agency is sending out kits that will allow state health departments to do their own tests.

“By the end of this week or beginning of next week we will be able to do all of the testing here,” Carver-Kimm said.

Carver-Kimm said state officials expect to see the first confirmed case of swine flu in Iowa by the end of the week.