UPDATE: Detroit-area schools close on swine flu report

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By WSBT News1

Story Created: May 3, 2009 at 11:45 AM EST

Story Updated: May 4, 2009 at 7:16 AM EST

DETROIT (AP) — Probable swine flu cases have led to the temporary halt of classes in the 19,000-student Plymouth-Canton Community School District, the 1,900-student Richmond Community Schools and a number of individual schools in southeastern and western Michigan.

Authorities in Michigan reported 19 new probable swine flu cases Sunday, bringing the state's total to 39. That's in addition to two cases already confirmed by the federal government, one each in Livingston and Ottawa counties.

The Plymouth-Canton district in Wayne County west of Detroit closed its 24 schools after a 16-year-old high school girl came down with a probable case of swine flu, it said in a statement on its Web site.

"This student in question had limited exposure to others during the illness, but district officials will be disinfecting all of its school buildings as a precautionary measure," the statement said.

She was in contact with a friend who visited Mexico, according to WXYZ-TV.

The district said it will disinfect the buildings Monday and Tuesday and reopen Wednesday.

In a recorded message on its office phone line, the Richmond district said a probable flu case of a high school student prompted officials to close the three schools until May 11.

A number of high, middle and elementary schools closed, mainly in western Michigan and suburban Detroit.

The 1,375-student Utica High School in the Utica Community Schools district north of Detroit was closed Sunday and will reopen May 13, said Macomb County spokesman Phil Frame. He said three students have probable cases of swine flu.

L'Anse Creuse and L'Anse Creuse North high schools in Macomb County also closed over probable flu cases. Other high schools shutting their doors include Fowlerville, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, Byron Center and Grand Rapids Union.

The new probable cases Michigan reported Sunday include six in Kent County, four each in Livingston and Macomb counties, two in Washtenaw County and one each in Allegan, Ottawa and Wayne counties, according to the state's emergency Joint Information Center and local health agencies.

Since the outbreak began, there have been 26 probable cases in western Michigan — 12 each in Kent and Ottawa counties and one each in Muskegon and Allegan counties. Southeastern Michigan has the state's other 13 probable cases, six in Macomb County, the state said.

It takes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at least three days to confirm cases based on samples it gets from the states, according to Michigan officials.

Worldwide, there have been 1,033 confirmed swine flu cases, 245 in the U.S. There have been 26 deaths, 25 in Mexico and one of a Mexican boy who died in Texas.

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Associated Press writer Jim Irwin in Detroit contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.michigan.gov/swineflu

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