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62 Sickened In Gallia Co. After Contact With Pigs

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Update 5:15 p.m. Four cases of H3N2v have been confirmed in Gallia County after "individuals had direct contact with swine at fairs."

Seven Gallia County residents have been hospitalized.

All but the one most recently admitted have been discharged.

Health Commissioner Gerald Vallee says in general, people are recovering quickly.

More than 60 people have caught the flu in Gallia County.

Many had contact with pigs.

The health department is awaiting test results to see if any additional people have H3N2v.

Statewide, 30 cases of the virus have been confirmed.


Update 10:40 a.m. Twenty-five more people have come down with the flu in Gallia County, bringing the total number to 62.

The Gallia County Health Department says the people they've been able to interview so far have had contact with pigs.

Health Commissioner Gerald Vallee said Tuesday that the original 37 tested positive for the flu after all but one had been at the fair.

He said officials are "presuming" they caught the H3N2v influenza virus through contact with pigs, but no cases have been confirmed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ohio Department of Health are doing further testing.

Results are expected next week.

Officials say it's safe to go to the fair as long as precautions are taken, such as washing hands after visiting the livestock barns.


Thirty-seven people have tested positive for the flu, and all but one had been at the Gallia County Fair.

Health Commissioner Gerald Vallee says officials are "presuming" they caught the H3N2v influenza virus through contact with pigs, but no cases have been confirmed.

He says at least 30 of those sickened were children.

Specimens have been sent to a lab at the Ohio Department of Health for further testing, which could take five to seven days.

Vallee says a presumptive positive could come sooner.

Exposure to pigs at other fairs in Ohio have resulted in more than a dozen human cases of the virus.