Health officials on Tuesday afternoon confirmed another four swine flu cases in Pima County, bringing the total to 10.
The newly confirmed cases include an infant, two teenagers and a young adult, according to Pima County Health Department spokeswoman Patti Woodcock. All four have recovered from the virus. Woodcock did not release any more information about the new cases.
Statewide, the number of confirmed swine flu cases rose to 49 Tuesday.
Pima County officials on Sunday confirmed the first six cases of the H1N1 influenza virus, including four on the Tohono O’odham Nation and one each in Marana and in Tucson.
County health officials continue investigating the most recent confirmed cases.
Although the swine flu turned out to be less serious than originally feared, Arizona officials learned vital lessons that will help the state if an epidemic hits in the future, Arizona’s interim public health director Will Humble said Tuesday.
Humble said he doesn’t believe state officials overreacted to the swine flu by shutting down schools. They were simply reacting to data coming from Mexico that indicated a possible pandemic.
He said the lessons officials learned during their response will help in the event of a truly serious virus.
Arizona has been relying on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test its suspected cases, and an additional 150 to 200 possible cases are outstanding. But the state laboratory will take over those duties later this week now that new tests for the specific strain have been received from the federal lab.
Citizen staff Writer Ty Bowers contributed to this article.