5 cases of unconfirmed swine flu in Chicago. Two of them are staff at the U of C hospitals.
The reason why it takes so long to ID swine flu is that there are no local centers for testing - the Centers for Disease Control have to do them out of their labs in Atlanta.
I've talked to a couple of University researchers about the flu. One of them studied (for kicks, apparently) the path of the 1918 flu pandemic in Chicago and U of C in particular - turns out we were hosting a garrison of WWI soldiers at the time. Here they at left, drilling on Stagg Field, the U of C's old Big Ten football stadium (with no little irony, where our library is now.)
Read about what happened to these guys here!
I actually did a little research on the 1918 influenza because I realized I knew nothing beyond 'it happened' and... unfortunately... that Edward Cullen from 'Twilight' was dying from it when he was turned into a vampire. *hangs head in shame* I learned the most from the wikipedia page and my roommate Kate explained the scientific jargon I skipped over. I've realized I actually kinda liked learning about the scientific stuff--it's interesting when I understand it. And the historical aspect helps too. Nice article, by the way. If I'd read that first, I never would have needed to visit wikipedia--your article is basically what I cared to know in a nut shell. Nice work. :)
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