Central Illinois does not appear to be immune from the swine flu. The Illinois Department of Public Health today announced the first probable case of swine flu downstate in Sangamon County. That's where Springfield is located.

Illinois now has three confirmed and 85 probable cases of the new flu strain. Until now, the virus has been reported only in northern Illinois mainly in Chicago and the suburbs. Meanwhile, the swine flu has struck three new states with 160 confirmed cases across the country.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control stated, "what I want to say is we have a new influenza virus. It's spreading. We don't know as much as we'd like to about the way it's going to behave in our communities, and we're learning a little bit more each day about the way it behaved in Mexico, but the picture is still very incomplete."
Meanwhile, Mexican officials say they're cautiously optomistic that the worst of the swine flu epidemic is over in their country as a spokesman for the World Health Organiation Paul Garwood reported, "The probable cases number is looking like it's falling. We could expect to see possibly increase cases, but the current rate of cases is probable we're finding in Mexico City has declined recently."
Across the globe, there are now more than 600 confirmed cases in 16 countries, including the first in Italy. Despite the increase in the number of infected, the WHO says there is not an increase risk of the pandemic; saying the virus has been mostly contained to North America.