2006 - 2007 Texas Influenza Surveillance Information

The flu activity level for the week ending October 28, 2006 is “sporadic”. Sporadic activity indicates that isolated reports of lab-confirmed flu along with influenza-like illness (ILI) have been reported.

The DSHS laboratory has identified the first culture confirmed influenza of the season. The specimen was collected on October 23, 2006 from a 14 year-old resident of San Antonio. It was identified as influenza B/Malaysia/2506/2004-like. The isolate has been sent to CDC for further strain characterization.

Reports were received from all of the 11 Health Service Regions (HSRs) for week 43. Only HSRs 1 and 11 reported an increase in flu activity from the previous week. All HSRs reported some flu activity. For a map of Health Service Regions, please visit the following website:

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/regions/state.shtm

During week 43, three hospital laboratories across Texas reported conducting a total of 187 influenza tests (both antigen and culture) to the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No positive tests were reported. The same three laboratories also reported conducting a total of 192 tests for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) with 27 positives (14%).

No institutional outbreaks or school closures were reported for week 43.

Sixty sentinel providers reported influenza-like illness (ILI) during week 43. Of all patient visits during this week, 2.44% were due to ILI. The baseline for Texas is 3.71%. The baseline is the mean percentage of patient visits for ILI during non-influenza weeks for the previous three seasons plus two standard deviations.

For more information on flu surveillance activities in the State of Texas, please visit the following website:

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/disease/influenza/surveillance/

Statewide Influenza Activity For the Week Ending October 28, 2006

(MMWR Week 43)

*Influenza activity level corresponds to current MMWR week only and does not reflect previous weeks’ activity.

2006 - 2007 Texas Influenza Surveillance Information --- Flu Reports

For the week ending: 10/7/06; 10/14/06; 10/21/06; 10/28/06; 11/04/06; 11/11/06; 11/18/06; 12/02/06; 12/09/06; 12/16/06; 12/23/06; 12/30/06; 1/06/07; 1/13/07; 1/20/07; 1/27/07; 2/10/07; 2/17/07; 2/24/07; 3/03/07; 3/10/07; 3/17/07; 3/24/07; 3/31/07; 4/07/07;

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