Story Published:
Apr 30, 2009 at 10:32 AM PST
Story Updated:
Apr 30, 2009 at 10:54 AM PST
This 2009 image taken through a microscope and provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows the H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A woman in Multnomah County likely has swine flu, Oregon health officials said, but the case hasn't been confirmed by tests at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Mel Kohn, head of the Oregon Public Health Department, said it is the state's first "probable" case of the swine flu, which is blamed for over 165 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.
State officials say three other possible cases are being tested, but results were not immediately available. Details about the cases, including location, were not released.
The Multnomah County woman, who was not identified, was not hospitalized and was recovering. The woman had contact with someone who traveled to Mexico and had been exposed to the swine flu virus," Kohn said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control will conduct further testing to determine if the woman indeed had swine flu. Those test results are not expected for several days.
"It is very likely that this test will be confirmed by the final step of laboratory testing," Kohn said. "So we are not waiting - we are treating this as a case of swine flu."
But Kohn said in a statement that federal officials told the state that 95 percent of the people who have preliminary test results like the woman's turn out to have swine flu.
Portland-area health officials will investigate the case to see if others might have been exposed.
"Our first priorities are to provide information to people to help themselves and to slow the spread of this new strain of flu virus," said Dr. Gary Oxman, health officer for Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.