Summary of Influenza Weekly Update

The State Health Department sends out a weekly influenza activity report. A couple of interesting items from today's report:

-- Influenza Like Illness rates have FALLEN this week from 5.9% of visits the previous week to 4.7% this week.

-- Influenza-associated hospitalizations rose by 103 this past week, to a season total of 623 (there is some lag time in reporting hospitalizations, however).

-- 100% OF SPECIMENS SENT FOR CONFIMRATORY TESTING WERE H1N1 (PANDEMIC) INFLUENZA STRAIN. This means that there is no seasonal influenza activity yet.

-- There have been 14 deaths related to H1N1 influenza this season. There were no new deaths reported this past week.

Here is a link to the Influenza Report.