Georgia - Flu season is among us

[Pathfinder]

Flu season is among us
by Sean Streicher

Posted: 11.13.2012 at 3:08 PM


ALBANY, GA --

There's no hiding it, flu season is here. The number of positive flu test in Southwest Georgia, has doubled from the last week in October to the first week in November


"With the amount of flu cases we have, we're dispensing a lot of flu medicine to treat the flu," said Walgreens' Pharmacist, Ashley Eschmann.

Health officials say the best way to escape the sometimes deadly virus, is by getting a flu vaccine.
...
Getting a flu shot is not only for yourself, but also for your loved ones.


"There may be young children or infants in your family who are not able to take the flu shot because they're too young, so if your protected then that's providing some level of protection to the infant," said Brenda Greene, the Southwest Georgia Public Health Deputy.

...
http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=824889

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Georgia - Flu season is among us

Source: http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=825945#.UKVcTnBpehc

Emergency rooms flooded with flu cases
by Jessica Fairley
Posted: 27 mins ago

ALBANY, GA. --

Flu season usually goes into high gear in January but doctors here in southwest Georgia say they?re swamped with cases coming into the emergency room.

Phoebe medical professionals say they have seen more than 1000 patients in the last five days.

That's a 25 to 30 percent increase than their regular volume.

Wednesday alone 40 people tested positive for the influenza virus that causes the flu...

 

[alert]

Re: Georgia - Flu season is among us

What are we talking about here? Is this reference to a strain not in the vaccine a reference to the Victoria/Yamagata decision on influenza B, or are we talking about a drift variant on one of the influenza A strains? Or are these H3N2v cases?

The flu vaccine has three strains (H1N1, H3N2, B), not two, so it is not clear what is meant here.

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2012/nov/15/sw-georgia-flu-season-is-kicking-in/

S.W. Georgia flu season is kicking in
ALBANY, Ga. -- Based on the activity at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital's emergency center, it looks like this might be the year to get a flu shot.

Dr. Joel Holcombe, an emergency medicine physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, said the overall emergency center patient volume over the last five days has been 1,000 people, around 200 a day.

Typically, officials would expect to see a daily volume of about 160. In the last two weeks, officials say there has been a 20-30 percent increase in volume at the emergency center.

"This is not a typical flu season," said Holcombe. "It usually doesn't hit until later."

Holcombe said the Influenza A strain has made up many of the cases, with some cases of Influenza B. Among those who have received the flu vaccine but have come into the hospital with the flu, many have had a strain not among the two included in the vaccine, the physician said.

[snip]

 

[mixin]

Re: Georgia - Flu season is among us

Published Date: 2012-11-17 03:12:59
Subject: PRO/EDR> Influenza (105): USA (GA)
Archive Number: 20121117.1413089
INFLUENZA (105): USA (GEORGIA)
******************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: Thu 15 Nov 2012

Source: Fox31online [edited]

http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=825945#.UKaqN4UXIac

The flu season usually goes into high gear in January, but doctors here in south west Georgia say they're swamped with cases coming into the emergency room. Medical professionals in Phoebe say they have seen more than 1000 patients in the last 5 days. That's a 25 to 30 per cent increase from their regular volume. On Wednesday [14 Nov 2012] alone, 40 people tested positive for influenza virus infection.

Doctors have treated people of all ages for the virus infection. Anyone who hasn't gotten vaccinated is urged to do so.

"If people react to it early and say, 'I need to go get my flu shot. I need to be preventative with this,' we could nip this in the bud," said Dr Joel Holcombe, at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. "Many people that we've seen in the last week have been positive in our flu testing. It's a big worry whether we're going to have an even worse season [than last year, 2011?] or not." Dr Holcombe said he has never seen this many cases so early in the flu season.

[byline: Jessica Fairley]
--

communicated by:

ProMED-mail from HealthMap alerts

<promed@promedmail.org>

[Is this an early warning of an impending outbreak of influenza virus infection in the Northern hemisphere? The most recent World Health Organization (WHO) Global Update concluded that there was no evidence of this as yet: see ProMED-mail post: Influenza (104): WHO update 20121109.1402543.

Likewise, the current EuroFlu Bulletin (http://www.euroflu.org/cgi-files/bulletin_v2.cgi) states that: "Influenza activity in the WHO European Region remains at a pre-season level, with several countries reporting sporadic detections of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2), and type-B viruses. The influenza positivity rate is relatively stable, as is usual for this time of the year. The number of hospitalizations due to severe acute respiratory infection remains stable, with none of the cases reported this week due to influenza."

The city of Phoebe can be located in the map of Georgia at http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/georgia/city-map.html. - Mod.CP

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1AYh.]

See Also

Influenza (104): WHO update 20121109.1402543
.................................................sb/cp/msp/sh
http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20121117.1413089