For the week ending February 16, 1985, 11 states (Florida,
Hawaii,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia) and the District of
Columbia reported widespread outbreaks of influenza-like illness,
and
17 states reported regional outbreaks.
Trends of influenza activity are represented in Figure 1.
Family
physicians who report weekly to CDC noted an average of 9.7 cases
of
influenza-like illness for the reporting week ending February 6,
compared with the average of 6.6 cases at the beginning of January.
Of total deaths reported from 121 U.S. cities, the percentage
associated with pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was 6.8% for the week
ending February 16 and 6.9% for the preceding week. This compares
with recent seasons when the P&I percentage exceeded 6%: in 1981,
the
P&I percentage peaked at 6.9%, and in 1976, at 7.7%. On both
occasions, many outbreaks of influenza associated with type A(H3N2)
strains were in progress.
The total number of type A(H3N2) virus isolates reported to CDC
from the network of WHO Collaborating Laboratories in the United
States has increased sharply for the reporting weeks ending January
26
and February 2. Including recent reports from Maine and Vermont,
influenza type A(H3N2) isolates have so far been reported from 44
states. Type B isolates have accounted for only nine of the 707
isolates reported by the collaborating laboratories.
Reported by TK Lee, PhD, Bureau of Health, Maine Dept of Human
Svcs; L
Orciari, P Pelletier, MS, Vermont Dept of Health; participating
physicians of the American Academy of Family Physicians; State and
Territorial Epidemiologists; State Laboratory Directors; Other
collaborating laboratories; Statistical Svcs Br, Div of
Surveillance
and Epidemiologic Studies, Epidemiology Program Office, Influenza
Br,
Div of Viral Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC.
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