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CIDRAP: Watching Rates Of ILI’s Around The Country

 

 

# 4381

 

 

 

Lisa Schnirring, in a feature for CIDRAP News tonight, tracks down some anecdotal reports of recent increases in ILIs (Influenza-like Illnesses) being reported in emergency departments around the country.

 

She also brings us word of the first increase in flu-like illnesses on US college campuses since late November, as reported by the ACHA (American College Health Association).

 

At this time, it is unknown whether these reports reflect an increase in pandemic H1N1 cases, or whether some other respiratory viruses may be to blame.  

 

The overall rates of ILI, while increasing in some regions, remain low.   I’ve just reproduced the opening paragraphs to Lisa’s report, follow the link to read it in its entirety.

 

 

 

Emergency departments see rise in flu-like illness

Lisa Schnirring * Staff Writer

Feb 24, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Some of the nation's emergency departments are noting increases in flu-like illness cases that appear to be pandemic H1N1, and colleges are reporting the first increase in flu-like illness since the end of November, but it's not clear if these are early signs of a third pandemic flu wave.

 

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) said today in a Twitter post that some of its members were anecdotally reporting a new wave of pandemic H1N1 patients coming to emergency departments and asked if other physicians were seeing similar patterns.

 

Carl Schultz, MD, professor of emergency medicine at the University of California at Irvine, told CIDRAP News that the increase in the number of influenza-like illnesses appears to be real, but he cautioned that many of the cases have not been confirmed as the pandemic H1N1 strain, because many departments stopped specifically testing for it because of low flu activity. Schultz chairs ACEP's disaster preparedness and response committee.

(Continue . . . )

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