Re: Links - Updated U.S. Death Counts
Re: Links - Updated U.S. Death Counts
Thanks for the welcome
On a post by Shiloh, it also mentions a sixth death being reported by the Arizona State Health Department, but it gives no individual details, so I don't know if you would want to include until more information comes out...
Flu cases still widespread
Arizona health officials blame abnormal numbers on swine flu
by Ginger Rough - Jun. 9, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The onset of June and the Valley's typically high summer temperatures usually spell the end of Arizona's flu season.
Not this year.
State health officials are still reporting widespread flu activity, a very atypical occurrence they attribute directly to the novel H1N1 flu virus, also known as swine flu, that first appeared in April.
"I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't ever remember seeing widespread flu in the middle of June," said Will Humble, interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. "It's not just in a little pocket here and there, it is across the whole state."
The "widespread" designation essentially means that flu activity is at the highest level of a five-rung scale used to monitor the influenza virus; it occurs when at least half the regions in the state report lab-confirmed cases of the illness.
Typically, Arizona's flu season begins just after Thanksgiving, peaks in February, and subsides in late May. In recent years, the state has confirmed anywhere between 1,600 and 5,300 influenza cases, depending on the severity of the season.
This year's season was on track to follow that path until the H1N1 virus showed up on April 29.
The state reported widespread flu activity from mid-February until the first week in April, when the number of confirmed cases began dropping. But once the H1N1 strain appeared, flu activity shot back up to widespread, where it has remained for the past five weeks.
The state now has 580 laboratory-confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus; which equates to about 11 percent of the state's overall flu activity. To date, Arizona's health officials have recorded 4,877 flu cases and six flu-related deaths.