The swine flu, also known as H1N1, may be old news on a national scale, but Vernon County had its first confirmed case on Friday afternoon.

Vernon County Health Department Director Elizabeth Johnson said the Vernon County case was confirmed for a city of Viroqua resident. Johnson said the health department will keep in contact with the patient.

“The main thing we want to say is we strongly encourage people to stay home if they are sick and call their medical provider,” Johnson said. “Follow the rules of regular hand washing and making sure you cover your mouth when coughing. Good hand and respiratory hygiene are important.”

Johnson said the swine flu is “pretty old news right now” on a national level. While the World Health Organization (WHO) last week announced that H1N1 was a “pandemic,” there had been only about 18,000 cases of the swine flu reported in the United States as of last week.

Of those, 1,883 of those had been confirmed in Wisconsin. Only two people in Wisconsin have died from the swine flu and there have been only 144 reported deaths worldwide.

Meanwhile, the average flu strain, kills between 250,000 and 500,000 annually according to the World Health Organization.

Johnson said her office is in contact with the state, but has received fewer updates as the new number of H1N1 cases has seemed to flatten out.