CDC: H1N1 evident in every state, District of Columbia

ATLANTA The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday announced that the number of confirmed H1N1 cases in the United States has eclipsed 10,000 and is now evident in every state, including the District of Columbia. To date, 17 deaths have been attributed to the H1N1 virus in the United States.

“We do continue to see more cases in more places,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s interim deputy director for the agency’s Science and Public Health Program, told reporters Friday. “Though we're not seeing dramatic large increases.”

However, unlike the seasonal influenza, the H1N1 strain is continuing to proliferate even as late in the season as June. Transmission is still fairly active in some parts, i.e. New York, where 605 cases and four deaths have been confirmed. “We're really not seeing much of any other seasonal flu viruses any more,” she said. “This is a novel virus, and much of the population, we don't think, has immunity to it.”

Schuchat noted that CDC last week disseminated candidate virus strains for the development of a H1N1 vaccine to several different manufacturers. “Although we have met this first initial milestone, we need to stay tuned over the next weeks and months because manufacturing and development and clinical studies can be unpredictable,” she said.