2007 - 2008 Texas Influenza Surveillance Information

Influenza Surveillance Report for MMWR Week 42

The influenza (flu) activity level for Texas for the week ending October 20, 2007 has been amended to “sporadic” based on new information. (The activity level was previously reported as “no activity”.) Sporadic activity indicates that isolated reports of lab confirmed influenza along with influenza-like illness (ILI) have been reported..

Reports were received from all 11 Health Service Regions (HSRs) for week 42. HSRs 1, 7 and 11 reported an increase in flu activity from the previous week. For a map of Health Service Regions, please visit the following website:

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

During week 42, four hospital laboratories across Texas and the Texas Department of State Health Services Laboratory reported conducting a total of 285 influenza tests (antigen, culture, and PCR) to the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five positive antigen tests for influenza A (untyped) were reported. Additionally, three positive cultures for influenza A (untyped) were reported. Two of these positive cultures were collected from a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old in Nueces County; one was collected from a 21-year-old in Travis County. The Air Force Institute for Operational Health (AFIOH) did not report any positive cultures for influenza virus for week 42.

No institutional outbreaks or school closures were reported for week 42.

Seventy-four sentinel providers reported data to the U.S. Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance System (SPSN) on patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) and total patients seen for any reason during week 42. Thirty-nine (53%) of these providers reported at least one patient with ILI. Of all patient visits during this week, 4.09% were due to ILI. The ILI baseline for the West South Central Region (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) of the United States is 4.3% for the 2007-2008 season. The baseline is the mean percentage of patient visits for ILI during non-influenza weeks for the previous three seasons plus two standard deviations.

The current map showing flu activity levels in the United States may be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivity.htm

For more information on flu surveillance activities in the State of Texas, please visit our main surveillance page.

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

2007 - 2008 Texas Influenza Surveillance Information --- Flu Reports

For the week ending: 10/6/07; 10/13/07; 10/20/07; 10/27/07; 11/03/07; 11/10/07; 11/17/07; 11/24/07; 12/01/07; 12/08/07; 12/15/07; 12/22/07; 12/29/07; 01/05/08; 01/12/08; 01/19/08; 01/26/08; 02/02/08; 02/09/08; 02/16/08; 02/23/08; 03/01/08; 03/08/08; 03/15/08; 03/22/08; 03/29/08; 04/05/08; 04/12/08; 04/19/08; 04/26/08; 05/03/08; 05/10/08; 05/17/08; Annual Summary;

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