Minnesota flu season off to a quick and severe start

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.sctimes.com/article/2012...-season-off-quick-severe-start?nclick_check=1

Minnesota flu season off to a quick and severe start
9:37 AM, Dec 15, 2012
Written by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services


...Still, figures released this week by the health department show that 105 people in Minnesota have been hospitalized this season with laboratory-confirmed influenza. That's more than the year-to-date tallies during the past two years.

Health officials say there is "regional" influenza activity in Minnesota...

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Minnesota flu season off to a quick and severe start

Source: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/185384652.html?refer=y


Flu surge has Minnesota health officials worried

Article by: JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY , Star Tribune
Updated: January 1, 2013 - 7:43 PM

The sudden, early spike of cases hints at a severe flu season.

A sudden spike in flu cases over the holidays is filling emergency rooms and urgent care centers across the state and has health officials fearing this could be one of the worst influenza seasons in years.

More than 120 Minnesotans were hospitalized with the flu in the week that ended Dec. 22 -- nearly twice the number of the previous week and more than a third of the total so far this year...

...Since Dec. 22, the number of ill people showing up at emergency rooms and clinics has continued unabated, say health officials. And some say it's just as bad as it was at the same time of year during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic when 1,800 people in Minnesota were hospitalized over a 12-month period. Since the official start of the flu season in October, 297 people have been hospitalized...