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Ind. reports Notre Dame student with swine flu

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) âÄî Indiana’s first confirmed case of swine flu is a student at the University of Notre Dame, state health officials said Tuesday afternoon. State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe said the infected student is “doing well” and has not suffered any serious complications from the swine flu virus. She released no additional information on the person, declining to say whether the student at the school in South Bend is a man or woman. State epidemiologists are investigating how the young adult who tested positive for the virus became infected but hope to have answers within a few days, Monroe said. She said the person had not recently traveled to the flu’s epicenter, Mexico, where the new flu strain is suspected of causing more than 150 deaths. “We don’t know if this individual perhaps had contact with someone who had recently traveled to Mexico âÄî that’s the investigation that has to take place,” Monroe said, promising to “share detailed information” as it becomes available. Notre Dame said in a statement that the student had sought treatment April 22 at the school’s student health center and a culture sample was taken and sent to state health officials for analysis. Two days later, the school was notified that the virus may have been swine flu âÄî a determination the CDC confirmed on Monday. “The student has fully recovered and is in good health after suffering flu symptoms and becoming ill last week,” the school’s statement said. Monroe said that to prevent the spread of the virus people should wash their hands frequently, sneeze into tissues that are immediately disposed of, and take other steps that would limit the spread of a virus. Monroe said Indiana residents should also refrain from greeting each other by shaking hands because viruses can be spread through such contract. “It would be a good time to stop the practice of shaking hands because so many times folks shake hands and they don’t have an opportunity to wash their hands,” she said. Monroe said the Indiana case had been confirmed in testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state health department said Sunday that it had sent two flu specimens for tests by the CDC. The agency said the flu specimens did not match other strains that Indiana has seen this year. More than 60 swine flu infections have been identified so far in the United States, including one in neighboring Ohio. No deaths have been reported yet in the United States.

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