Health

ST. PAUL (AP) ― Minnesota health officials reported the first probable case of swine flu in the state Wednesday, a person at Rocori Middle School in the central Minnesota town of Cold Spring, and local officials closed that school and one other there as a precaution.

A lab sample was flown on a state plane to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to be tested definitively, and state officials hoped to know by day's end whether it was the unusual new strain of influenza that has made people sick in Mexico, several U.S. states and other countries.

The person who became ill was not identified, and officials were guarded about details. Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan said the person -- whom the agency chief described using the pronoun "her" at one point -- was not hospitalized and was expected to make a full recovery.

WCCO-TV was told by friends of the person that it is a seventh-grade girl that is infected.  The Minnesota Department of Health said that is not true.

Magnan said the person did not travel to Mexico, but was believed to have had contact with someone who did. A preliminary investigation has determined that the patient wasn't at the school when considered most prone to passing the illness.

State officials had said in recent days they expected swine flu to appear in Minnesota, and they urged people to remain calm.

"We will have cases," State Epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield said. "But that's OK. We deal with seasonal influenza outbreaks every year. This is going to be different. The virus may become more virulent, the virus may become less virulent. We don't know. We have to keep up with it and see what there is to do."

Added Lynfield: "We have been preparing for this for almost 10 years."

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his advisers refrained from calling the suspected illness swine flu and instead referred to it as "H1N1 novel flu" -- a distinction of importance in a major pork producing state.

School officials said they voluntarily closed Rocori Middle School and St. Boniface School in Cold Spring, about 60 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Pawlenty said he spoke with the district superintendent about midnight Tuesday and recommended the temporary closure.

In an e-mail to parents, Rocori Superintendent Scott Staska said he became aware of the case late Tuesday night. He said "an individual from the ROCORI Middle School site" had experienced flu-like symptoms that were "not alarming," and that the individual was "recovering without complications."

Staska said his decision to close the Rocori Middle School was "purely as an effort to be very cautious and proactive." He said classes would go on as usual at Rocori High School, Cold Spring Elementary, Richmond Elementary, and John Clark Elementary.

"There is not, at this time, cause for alarm. The symptoms experienced by the individual, in this case, are not unusual nor severe. In fact, the information shared with me is that the individual appears in much better condition as each day passes," the superintendent wrote.

At a news conference Wednesday, Staska said he considered shutting down the whole district, but decided on a more moderate course. "It seemed to make the most sense, given what was known at the time," he said.

Sister Sharon Waldoch, the principal at St. Boniface, a Catholic elementary school across the parking lot with about 275 students, said they closed as a precaution because they send students to the public middle school for music, physical education and lunch.

Pawlenty said the schools would reopen quickly if the CDC test is negative, but a confirmation of swine flu would keep them closed for as long as a week. He said he ordered the sample flown to the CDC on the state plane to make sure it arrived for early consideration Wednesday.

Magnan said the risk to students and staff at the schools was low. But she urged people to "take care of themselves, eat right, get the sleep they need, be physically active" and wash their hands thoroughly and often.

"No one has immunity to this new virus," she said.

Though there is no vaccine for this strain of the flu, Magnan said antiviral drugs have been effective and Minnesota is expecting additional stockpiles of those from the CDC. Some of the 400,000 doses the state currently has will be distributed to regional hospitals in case of immediate need, health officials said.

In Cold Spring, the flu case was the talk of the town. At the Cold Spring Bakery, a popular downtown gathering spot, retail manager Kathy Sanquist said her employees had mixed reactions.

"Some are waiting to see what happens, and some are kind of panicked already," she said. In the meantime, workers were taking extra care in handling the food, including washing their hands more often.

Across the street at the Dollar Outlet, owner Lance Weber said he thought state and local officials were overblowing the threat. "They haven't proven anything," he said. "They're just panicking people."

Michael Osterholm, a pandemic flu expert at the University of Minnesota, told AP Radio early detection efforts across the country seem to be working.

"I think the public health system has done a lot of work to prepare itself for the early detection of a potential pandemic flu virus in this country and I think that work is paying off," he said.

Osterholm said he wasn't surprised that the U.S. reported its first confirmed swine flu death Wednesday, a 23-month-old boy in Texas.

"I think over the next several days we're going to see a number of severe cases in the United States, and that doesn't fundamentally change anything about this disease at all," he said.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)