“We had over 2500 cases of flu reported to us in Greene County alone so previous year really was a bad flu season for us”, says Kendra Findley, Administrator of Community Health and Epidemiology with the Greene County Health Department. Greene County just saw it’s first confirmed case.
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During a symposium titled “The Future in Health”, while responding to a question on how many people in Turkey have been infected with the virus, Müezzinoğlu said his ministry recently examined 480 blood samples taken from patients who came to hospitals with respiratory tract complaints.
The best way to protect against flu viruses is to get the vaccine, Handler said. The majority of cases are among the elderly, but at least 40 percent are occurring in people ages 25 to 64. On Wednesday, third case of swine flu positive this year was found.
“When you start to compare the CDC looks at this flu season as actually more of a typical flu season, past year really is an anomaly”, says Findley.
However, she said the hospitals’ flu-time visiting restrictions on children remain until the end of flu season.
With expected increase in swine flu activity in coming days, the DAK warned public health officials not to be complacent as influenza could become more widespread as season wears on.
An early bump in flu activity originally indicated that it would peak in November.
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While swine flu scare is looming over the valley, there are serious gaps such as low vaccination rates and no efforts are made to educate people about the need for vaccine which is the best defense against flu, he said.
