Sixty-seven Air Force cadets have tested positive for swine flu

Sixty-seven Air Force cadets have tested positive for swine flu and are being isolated at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, a spokesman for the academy said Tuesday.
The outbreak is the single largest in Colorado, which up until last week had 146 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, according to the State Public Health and Environment Department.
Academy officials first became concerned last week when a growing number of incoming freshman cadets, who began basic training in June, started falling ill with flulike symptoms.
One hundred cadets have been isolated in a dormitory, and test results from an Air Force epidemiology laboratory in Texas found that 67 had contracted swine flu. Results are still pending for dozens of cadets, said John Van Winkle, a spokesman for the academy. Seventy who fell ill were cleared to return to training.
None of the sick cadets have been hospitalized so far, and Mr. Van Winkle described all of the cases as “moderate.” Nonetheless, academy officials said they would not take any chances and called off the annual “Doolie Day Out,” in which freshman cadets, who are known as doolies, are allowed to leave campus.
Mr. Van Winkle said it was nearly impossible to determine the source of the outbreak because some cadets had fanned out across the world for various Air Force-related programs. There are 1,341 cadets in the incoming freshman class.
“Our priority right now is treating those that are ill, limiting the spread and educating our entire base population about what we have done and will continue to do,” Mr. Van Winkle said.
Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the centers were working with the Defense Department to investigate the outbreak.
In Colorado, which has seen a relatively low number of swine flu cases until now, a summer youth camp at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley was stopped after 10 students and three staff members exhibited flulike symptoms over the weekend.
There have been about 37,000 confirmed cases of swine flu so far in the United States and its territories. Earlier this month, the Obama administration warned that the illness could resurge in the fall and announced plans to start vaccinations in October.