Stories

Four additional Iowa influenza-related H1N1 deaths are being reported today by the Iowa Department of Public Health, and one of the new fatalities is not attributable to risk factors associated with an additional medical condition.
The latest victims are identified as adults in Dubuque, Polk, Mills and Monona counties. To date, there have been 11 confirmed [...]

Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health are reporting the first death of a child in the state in association with the H1N1 virus. The victim, a resident of eastern Iowa who died during October, had factors that increased the risk of complications from the flu.
“Surveillance is showing a stead increase in pediatric illness [...]

A quarantine template created by the Iowa Department of Public Health and accessible through the Centers for Disease Control Web site should not be of great concern, according to a press release from health department officials.
“IDPH wants to make it clear that Iowa has not issued any isolation and quarantine orders for novel influenza A [...]

Update: Marshalltown Community School District will be closed until Monday, May 11.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that a sample from a southeast Iowa woman sent by state officials for testing contains the H1N1 flu virus. As promised, Gov. Chet Culver has declared a public health emergency.
The Iowa woman who tested positive [...]

Although state officials have yet to learn whether or not two previous samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control contain the H1N1 flu virus, they announced today that a third probable case has been identified.
The third sample, which will also be sent to the CDC in Atlanta for further evaluation, is from an adult [...]

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, flanked by Iowa Department of Public Health Director Tom Newton and State Epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, gave Hawkeye state residents a reason to be cautious this afternoon during a press conference in Des Moines:
The state suspects two individuals in the state of having the H1N1 virus, the so-called swine flu.
The two [...]

A perfectly-timed coughing fit during a press conference on the state’s response to the swine flu outbreak scored Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge a prominent spot during “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
Here’s the bit Letterman called “An Important Swine Flu Announcement from the Lt. Governor of Iowa.”

Though much remains unknown about the spread of ‘Swine Flu,’ a potentially deadly strain of influenza that appears to have migrated from pigs to humans in Mexico and, now, the United States, a growing chorus of critics of industrial agriculture is asking whether confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are to blame.