Word: flu
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When the virus entered the United States last April, the Centers for Disease Control issued test kits to physicians around the country to record confirmed cases. But by late July, doctors stopped individual reporting, saying the flu strain had become so extensive that maintaining such detailed surveillance was time-consuming and likely underestimating the true number of flu cases in the U.S. The Alabama Department of Public Health came up with a new plan: tracking the virus through school absentee records, voluntarily shared by individual districts. (Check out a story on the rapid spread of the H1N1 virus...
...never had a need for that information before," says Dr. Jim McVay, director of health promotion and chronic disease for ADPH. He says typically this time of year, you'd expect 1% to 2% absenteeism, with that number escalating to 5% and 6% during the traditional flu months of January and February. Instead, student absentee rates in places like Tuskegee-based Macon County climbed to 16% last week, prompting the county school district to close six schools. "To say it's just the flu," says McVay, "tell that to someone whose infant has died of influenza. Yes, it's just...
Reports of H1N1 outbreaks are sporadic throughout the state. The Tuscaloosa County School system reports higher attendance than normal, but at the University of Alabama, 54 students have been diagnosed with suspected swine flu, and university spokesperson Cathy Andeen says more arrive each day. At Tutwiler Hall, one of the campuses largest dorms, a box of facemasks shared counter space with the typical collegiate flotsam and jetsam Tuesday afternoon, and hand sanitizer was stashed on desks and tables throughout the building. The university also distributed flu kits containing Tylenol and a thermometer and created a "flu hotline" for parents...
...rooms to help stop the spread of the virus, and Samford University called up its Pandemic Planning Team to keep students and parents informed. Opelika high school's head football coach faced his first game of the season Friday night with a quarter of his team benched by the flu...
...patients a day in August, and that's blowin' and goin'," Fisher says, using a local expression for quick in-and-out cases. "The past few days, it's been 220, 262, 240. It's a lot busier than usual. We have those numbers during traditional flu season, but not during shirtsleeve weather...