Health officials: Area's flu season on way out (but...)

[JimO]

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/02/23/health-officials-areas-flu-season-on-way-out.html

Health officials: Area's flu season on way out

This year's flu season seems headed for an unremarkable exit -- except for those who got the vaccine but still got sick...

...Epidemiologist Richard Duma, the director of infectious diseases at Halifax Health, said this year's vaccine was a good match for the A strain that's on the loose this year, but the B strain that's prevalent did not match up with the vaccine as well...

...Dr. Salman Ahmed, who practices pediatrics in Palm Coast and Ormond Beach, said about 40 to 50 of the 1,500 children he vaccinated came down with the flu -- the largest number of failures he's ever seen in 12 years of practice...more at link

[JimO]

Re: Health officials: Area's flu season on way out (but...)

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Disease_ctrl/epi/swineflu/Reports/reports.htm

The number of positive isolates in Florida peaked in Week 3; however, pH1N1 had been increasing, since it first showed up in Week 50, through Week 5. There was a significant drop in all isolates detected as well as the percentage of pH1N1 in Week 6. I do hope this trend continues and things fizzle out in Florida. However, the %ILI has been pretty steady for some time and there isn't a decline in Week 6. The number of isolates tested dropped from 175 in Week 5 to 107 in Week 6 and there was a higher percentage of unsubtyped influenza A in Week 6 (9 positive isolates instead of 1). If all the unsubtyped A isolates were pH1N1, then the percent pH1N1 to the total positives would have been similar to prior weeks.

Based on the data, Florida could still see a sharp increase in pH1N1, so I believe that it is premature to say for certain that flu season is on the way out. I'm sure that doctors in certain areas and certain county officials have seen significant declines in their areas, but overall, Florida isn't out of the woods yet.