Two people in Michigan have been diagnosed with swine flu after attending county fairs, health officials confirmed today.

The patients – whose infections are not linked to one another – caught different strains at separate fairs last month, where they were exposed to infected pigs.

Both sufferers – whose identities have not been revealed – experienced mild illness, and there is no sign they spread it to others. 

But the infections come amid an unprecedented influenza outbreak in animals that has many experts fearful of a spillover into people. 

The first patient, a Lapeer County resident, was working at the Oakland County Fair, which took place at the Springfield Oaks County Park in Davisburg between July 7-16.

They were infected with an H3 variant of swine flu which was confirmed via a test carried out by state health officials on July 26.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested a sample from the patient which came back inconclusive, which it said was likely due to the sample not containing enough virus.

The second patient attended the Tuscola County Fair in Caro, about 50 miles from Davisburg, between July 23 and July 29.

The patient was confirmed to have a H1 strain of the virus, which is typically more mild than H3 types. 

Neither patient required hospitalization, and both were treated with flu antivirals. They are now recovering.

The CDC advised people to take general precautions to limit the spread of swine flu, including not eating or drinking while pigs are present, avoiding contact with pigs that appear sick, and washing hands with soap and water before and after contact with pigs.

Flu viruses can spread from pigs to people, but it’s rare, with only a handful of spillover events occurring in the US each year.

Like any flu, when infected pigs cough, sneeze or even just breathe, droplets with pieces of flu virus in them can spread through the air. 

If these land in a person’s nose and mouth, or are breathed in, they can become infected with swine flu.

Swine flu surges in pigs around the fall months, raising the risk of the disease spilling over into humans.

People who become infected tend to suffer similar symptoms to seasonal flu, including fever, cough, runny nose and body aches.

But cases are normally mild and clear up on their own in a few weeks. There is little risk of death.

Scientists say, however, that children under five, people over 65, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions are more at risk of complications if they become infected.

A major swine flu outbreak was triggered in 2009 after a mutated version of the virus — strain H1N1 — spilled over into humans.

In the end, about one in five people globally became infected. For the US, there were estimated to have been about 60 million cases alongside 275,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths.

But the case fatality rate — the proportion of patients that died from the disease — was thought to have been around 0.03 percent. For comparison, when Covid first struck, it had a fatality rate of up to three percent.

County cricket’s 50-over competition, the Metro Bank Cup, got underway this week, boosted by the fact players surplus to requirements at any stage of the Hundred will be free to represent their counties.

It also features high-quality overseas players in the shape of India Test batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Prithvi Shaw (Sussex and Northants respectively), South Africa’s Simon Harmer at Essex and Shan Masood of Pakistan and Yorkshire.

Despite being branded a development tournament by the ECB when the Hundred launched in 2021, it has maintained healthy crowds as counties take the opportunity to use out-grounds, attracting a wider audience in the process.

There is a developmental nature to it, of course, given the 100 best English-qualified white-ball cricketers have a 100-ball focus this month, and that allows young cricketers to make their marks, as Joey Evison did with the bat for champions Kent and John Turner did with the ball for Hampshire last season.

It is unlikely that performances will impact England’s World Cup selection, but a strong Metro Bank Cup season would surely influence longer-term thinking. Indeed, Durham’s Ollie Robinson served notice of an ability to score big runs at a rapid rate for Kent in 2022 and could now be rewarded with a place on the white-ball tour of West Indies.

The two group winners progress directly into the semi-finals on August 29, while the second and third-placed teams play off in two ‘quarter-finals’ for the right to face them. The final is at Trent Bridge on September 16.

Here is how the 18 first-class counties are shaping up:

GROUP A

Essex

Captain: Tom Westley

Overseas players: Simon Harmer (SA), Beau Webster (Aus)

2022: Sixth in Group B

Multi-format star Harmer misses the first few matches, having been given recuperation time ahead of a Championship title push, and Alastair Cook sits it out. The giant Webster adds all-round skills to a young squad.

Hampshire

Captain: Nick Gubbins

Overseas players: None

2022: Semi-finals

Only Surrey have lost more players to the Hundred than Hampshire’s 10 and their overseas pair, Kyle Abbott and Mohammad Abbas, are Championship specialists — but they still opened up with a win over Middlesex.

Kent

Captain: Joe Denly

Overseas players: James Bazley (Aus)

2022: Winners

Hundreds from Evison and Ben Compton helped the holders begin the new campaign in style, recovering from four wickets down early to edge out Yorkshire. Queenslander Bazley bowls seam and hits long.

Lancashire

Captain: Keaton Jennings

Overseas player: Dane Vilas (SA) 2022: Runners-up

A club promoting its youth still has ambitions of repeating last year’s charge to the final given the quality of emerging players George Bell, Tom Aspinwall and Jack Morley and the experienced backbone of the batting.

Leicestershire

Captain: Lewis Hill

Overseas players: Peter Handscomb (Aus), Wiaan Mulder (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Seldom in recent years have Leicestershire entered a competition with genuine belief that they could win it, but with two excellent overseas players and only Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson absent, there is reason for such confidence.

Middlesex

Captain: Mark Stoneman

Overseas players: Pieter Malan (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group A

Financial restrictions limit Middlesex’s overseas acquisitions but they retain the majority of their Championship squad for this competition and have high hopes for Joe Cracknell and Blake Cullen.

Nottinghamshire

Captain: Haseeb Hameed

Overseas players: Dane Paterson (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Expect Nottinghamshire’s attempts to improve on last eason’s play-off elimination to be based on the triple spin threat of Calvin Harrison, Liam Patterson-White and Matthew Montgomery, and a bevy of all-rounders including former Yorkshire player Tom Loten and Lyndon James.

Surrey

Captain: Rory Burns

Overseas players: None

2022: Seventh in Group A

Despite losing a dozen cricketers, Surrey still include recent England batters Burns, Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes, while Conor McKerr, Daniel Moriarty and Amar Virdi boast plenty of top-level wickets.

Yorkshire

Captain: Shan Masood

Overseas player: Shan Masood (Pak)

2022: Fifth in Group B

Matthew Revis marked the start of Yorkshire’s campaign with a hat-trick against Kent. He and George Hill have the chance to progress their careers by dominating these contests.

GROUP B

Derbyshire

Captain: Brooke Guest

Overseas Players: Haider Ali (Pak), Suranga Lakmal (SL)

2022: Seventh in Group B

The retention of Ali and signing of David Lloyd from Glamorgan gives ballast to the batting and they should be contenders despite losing their first match.

Durham

Captain: Alex Lees

Overseas players: David Bedingham (SA), Migael Pretorius (SA)

2022: Ninth in Group A

Promotion in four-day cricket remains the priority and an inexperienced unit was well beaten by Worcestershire this week — despite Liam Trevaskis’s hat-trick — extending last year’s theme.

Glamorgan

Captain: Kiran Carlson

Overseas player: Colin Ingram (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group B

David Harrison, the coach who led the Welsh club to glory in this competition two years ago, takes the reins again from Mark Alleyne. Expect another strong showing, after narrowly missing out on third spot last August.

Gloucestershire

Captain: Graeme van Buuren

Overseas players: Zafar Gohar (Pak), Harry Tector (Ire)

2022: Fifth in Group A

A maiden List A ton for Ollie Price (below) versus Derbyshire contributed to a perfect start on Tuesday, but the fact Gloucestershire signed Hector for just one match highlights the extent of their injury crisis.

Northamptonshire

Captain: Lewis McManus

Overseas players: Sam Whiteman (Aus), Prithvi Shaw (Ind)

2022: eighth in Group B

With just David Willey and Saif Zaib missing, there has been little disruption at Wantage Road, and with Shaw intent on putting a dismal IPL season behind him, expect improvement on 2022.

Somerset

Captain: Sean Dickson

Overseas players: Curtis Campher (Ire)

2022: Eighth in Group A

The signing of Campher is shrewd and these 50-over affairs give James Rew a chance to show he has extra gears not yet evident in his first-class batting, as Somerset seek a white-ball double under new captain Dickson.

Sussex

Captain: Cheteshwar Pujara

Overseas players: Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind)

2022: Semi-finals

Pujara, second top scorer in last year’s competition with 624 runs, also led the side brilliantly, and with minimal changes in personnel 12 months on, they look a good bet to be pushing for a trip to Trent Bridge again.

Warwickshire

Captain: Will Rhodes

Overseas players: None

2022: Sixth in Group A

Jake Lintott, a Hundred winner in 2021, and Ed Barnard provide some experience, but the fact the Bears added a trio of rookie players to their squad on the eve of the competition highlights their approach to it.

Worcestershire

Captain: Jake Libby

Overseas player: Azhar Ali (Pak)

2022: Ninth in Group B

Rob Jones joins on loan from Lancashire ahead of a permanent 2024 switch, bolstering a side who should be tussling for top spot rather than the wooden spoon this time around. Watch out for Kashif Ali’s explosive batting.