Swine flu cases rise, but officials say they are mild

Swine flu cases continue to mount fairly steadily in Illinois and the suburbs, but health officials say that despite recent deaths, the vast majority of cases are mild.

The state reported 207 new cases this week, roughly on par with the rate of the previous three weeks.

In response to flu cases, though not necessarily swine flu, at one Buffalo Grove middle school this week, officials sent a letter to parents advising them to keep sick children at home and take steps to prevent the spread of the illness.

Cooper Middle School had 18 cases of flu-like symptoms Friday, a small percentage of the school's 780 students, Interim Principal Gregg Crocker said.

Because the cases are not severe, and health officials now recommend testing only very sick patients, it's not known if any of the cases involved swine flu.

Health officials advise keeping students with flu-like symptoms home for a week after symptoms appear, and at least 24 hours after symptoms resolve.

It will be a moot point for many schools after next week, when many schools like Cooper finish classes.

Statewide, the number of suspected and confirmed swine flu cases reached 1,357 Friday.

Five people with swine flu have died in Illinois, including a 22-year-old Chicago man, a female from Northwest suburban Cook County, a 42-year old Kane County man, a 74-year-old Gurnee man, and a 20-year-old Chicago woman with pneumonia who died a day after giving birth.

Nationally, only 8 percent of the 13,217 cases have required hospitalization, and most of the 27 deaths have involved people with underlying medical conditions.

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could not explain why the numbers of cases were so high in Illinois and Wisconsin, which rank third and first among states, respectively, and combined account for more than one-quarter of all cases nationwide.