State announces confirmed case of influenza A H1N1

LANSING — The state confirmed that a probable case of influenza A(H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, has been confirmed in a 34-year-old Livingston County woman.

The state is also investigating a probable infection of an Ottawa County woman.

Janet Olszewski, the director of the Michigan Department of Community Health, announced at a press conference that the state has 1 million doses of antivirals that have so far proved effective in minimizing the viral infections, and that the department is prepared to tap an additional 250,000 doses from the federal stockpile.

Olszeweski was joined by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and both urged calm in the face of the growing health crisis.

Liz Boyd, a Granholm spokeswoman told Michigan Messenger that the governor is looking at ways to control the virus legally, if necessary. “The governor is consulting with her legal staff and will take whatever steps are necessary to contain the virus,” Boyd said. “She has not signed any emergency orders, at this point.”

Granholm partially activated the state’s Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) and the Joint Information Center. Those teams will remain on call until the threat from the virus has passed.

MDCH officials said people with symptoms should seek medical attention. Those symptoms include fever and muscle aches, among other symptoms. For more information on symptoms and treatment of the virus visit this site.

Doctors are doing in-house testing for Influenza A, which is a common strain of virus infecting people. If a swab tests positive it is sent to the state lab for further testing. If the swab tests positive to the more sensitive state lab testing, it is labeled a probable case, and the swab is sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation testing.

Currently, the state is looking at “dozens” of tests which tested positive in the first step. They have only referred one other test — that of the Ottawa county woman — to the CDC.

Dr. Greg Holzman, chief medical officer for the state, said the tests “start at 10 a.m. and are done about 2 p.m. We then report the findings to the doctor.”

Holzman also spoke about potential resistance to antiviral medications. The current and common flu in Michigan has been reported to be widely resistant to the antivirals used to treat the virus’ symptoms and slow the spread of the common virus. There is some concern the Influenza A (H1N1) virus could adopt the genetic resistance to the antivirals.

“It’s always a concern,” Holzman said during the press conference. “It [the virus] is sensitive to the antivirals now, that is why it is important for people not to go out and take these medicines without being told to do so by a doctor.”

The state also made the move to stop referencing the virus in question as “swine flu,” citing a change by the CDC. The name, officials said, was misleading because the virus which is causing the illness is mixture of human flu viruses, avian flu virus and swine flu virus. It is not, the officials stressed, infecting swine populations anywhere in Michigan or the United States.

Michigan Messenger’s sibling site, the Minnesota Independent, reported earlier on the issues related to the virus name, indicating that health authorities there were responding to concerns by pork producers that using the term swine flu was impacting sales and hitting commodity trading hard.