Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Centers for Disease Control Tuesday confirmed nine cases of the H1N1 swine flu in Washington state.  The positive test results are the first among the 45 “probable” swine flu cases that state microbiologists sent to the federal lab in Atlanta.  

Washington Secretary of Health Mary Selecky says all nine people are recovering.  None required hospitalization.

Mary Selecky: “We expect that every day we will get additional confirmation.  We expect that it will follow the pattern of other states and eventually most of the 45 we have already sent in will likely be confirmed.”

Washington is the final Northwest state to report a confirmed case of swine flu.  As of Tuesday morning, Oregon had 17 and Idaho one.

Selecky says the state health lab outside of Seattle has received testing kits to make positive identifications of swine flu locally.  She says it will take until the end of the week to get the local testing process certified.

Another state health official says some of Washingtonians who have come down with swine flu traveled to Mexico, but most did not.  It’s still not clear how the majority of the cases contracted the new strain of flu.

Of the nine confirmed swine flu cases in Washington – seven come from King County, plus one each in Snohomish and Spokane Counties.