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New York saw a slight increase in emergency room visits over the weekend from people reporting flu-like symptoms, but health officials say it's too soon to know whether swine flu is back.
"There was a little bit of an increase seen last week, but then it subsided," Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said.
"We don't know if that was an increase in true influenza cases, or if that was an increase in people worrying about that and coming in and saying, 'I'm worried that I might have the flu.'
"We're continuing to track that closely," he added. "But we don't see evidence of any major spread of the virus in the city right now."
Health Department figures show 166 people visiting city emergency rooms Saturday with flu-like symptoms and 165 on Sunday, as compared with 101 on Friday.
Those figures come from 50 city hospitals that report their daily emergency room visits to the Health Department.
Other measurements show reports of flu-like symptoms relatively flat over the summer.
"When we get data from the emergency departments, it's not confirmed flu," said Isaac Weisfuse, the Health Department's flu coordinator.
"That's not to say that H1N1 isn't in the city," he said. "There's some variability day to day normally. It's too early to call from this data that we see a real uptick."
Meanwhile, new studies show that people who catch swine flu may be contagious for longer than scientists first thought - for as long as a week after they first show symptoms.
Some health officials have been telling people to avoid contact with others for a day after their fever goes away. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer, and that coughing is a more accurate sign of how long they can spread the germ.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...#ixzz0RCVwl1VA
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