At 555, Illinois has highest number of H1N1 flu cases in US

The number of confirmed H1N1 flu cases in Illinois has more than doubled in the last one week, reaching a staggering 554, the highest in any US state.         

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 555 cases of the flu, including one probable. Chicago alone has 249 confirmed flu cases in the state. A week ago, there were 225 confirmed flu cases in Illinois.         

Across the US, the number of confirmed H1N1 cases reached 3009, with three deaths in Texas and Washington.        

IDPH laboratories have been able to perform confirmatory testing. Earlier, only the CDC lab in Atlanta could definitively identify swine flu cases in the US. 

State health authorities have attributed the surge in number of confirmed flu cases in Illinois to the IDPH labs being able to perform  tests to confirm the flu virus, thus reducing a backlog of suspected flu samples.        

With 437 confirmed cases, the neighbouring state of Wisconsin has the second highest number of people infected with the virus in the US.