Third case of swine flu confirmed in Spokane

A Spokane girl who attends Mountain Side Middle School has become the third person from Spokane to fall ill with the swine-origin influenza A virus. Officials with the Spokane Regional Health District are speaking with school officials and the girl’s family this afternoon. The teenager was not in school during the time when she would have been contagious, though parents of other students at the school have been asked to keep their children home if they exhibit flu symptoms including fever, cough, headache, body aches, diarrhea or vomiting. State officials say there are now 176 confirmed cases of swine flu in Washington, including the first cases in Yakima County. As of Monday, 121 cases were confirmed in King County, which includes Seattle; 34 were confirmed in Snohomish County; six in Pierce County; four in Clark County, which includes Vancouver; two in Yakima and one each in Thurston and Skagit counties. The state Health Department said Monday that another 19 cases are considered probable for swine flu. Since Sunday’s update, the state confirmed 48 additional cases. New samples come into the lab for testing each day. As of Monday afternoon, the state had more than 700 samples waiting for confirmation. State and federal officials have confirmed about a fifth of the Washington flu samples they have tested.