Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
<TABLE class=Box_66529638_Tb cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" border=0><TBODY><TR align=left><TD class=Box_66529638_Td width="100%">Posted: Wednesday, 03 March 2010 12:07PM
Where Did Flu Season Go?
</TD></TR><TR align=left><TD class=Box_66529638_Td width="100%">SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- So, what happened to flu season this year? Following all the hullabaloo over Swine Flu, doctors around the Bay Area and the country are reporting a lot fewer cases of seasonal flu this season.
KCBS? Mike Colgan Reports
Nationally, fewer than two percent of doctor visits last month had to do with patients with influenza, according to the C.D.C.
?During a pandemic you usually see that strain as the predominant strain, and seasonal flu, which usually comes up every winter, is just not around right now because it?s being overrun by the H1N1,? said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County?s Chief Medical Officer. ?Because we?re getting into spring now we may not see much seasonal flu at all this year, but it?ll be back.?
Fenstersheib says that this year, obviously, most of the focus has been on the Swine Flu virus.
?We had over 1,000 people hospitalized in this county. We had 18 people die from this, so it?s not an insignificant issue. Even though the numbers are not the same as we see in the seasonal flu, these were younger people, and kids, so I?d say it was a very significant issue for all of us,? said Fenstersheib.
The CDC says this flu season actually peaked last October.
(MGO)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.kcbs.com/bayareanews/Where-Did-Flu-Season-Go-/6488706
Where Did Flu Season Go?
</TD></TR><TR align=left><TD class=Box_66529638_Td width="100%">SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- So, what happened to flu season this year? Following all the hullabaloo over Swine Flu, doctors around the Bay Area and the country are reporting a lot fewer cases of seasonal flu this season.
KCBS? Mike Colgan Reports Nationally, fewer than two percent of doctor visits last month had to do with patients with influenza, according to the C.D.C.
?During a pandemic you usually see that strain as the predominant strain, and seasonal flu, which usually comes up every winter, is just not around right now because it?s being overrun by the H1N1,? said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County?s Chief Medical Officer. ?Because we?re getting into spring now we may not see much seasonal flu at all this year, but it?ll be back.?
Fenstersheib says that this year, obviously, most of the focus has been on the Swine Flu virus.
?We had over 1,000 people hospitalized in this county. We had 18 people die from this, so it?s not an insignificant issue. Even though the numbers are not the same as we see in the seasonal flu, these were younger people, and kids, so I?d say it was a very significant issue for all of us,? said Fenstersheib.
The CDC says this flu season actually peaked last October.
(MGO)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.kcbs.com/bayareanews/Where-Did-Flu-Season-Go-/6488706