The Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued its report on the spread of influenza as of the end of the year, and it looks like things may be starting to slow down.
Seasonal flu activity remains high in Pennsylvania and across the United States, and activity is higher than prior years, but the number of new cases went down over the last week. Over the last week, the number of flu cases across the state increased by 15,281 to a new total of 159,304 laboratory-confirmed flu cases. The predominant strain, Type A, is responsible for 155,834 of the total cases across the state, while there have been 3,314 cases of Type B. 156 cases have been unidentified.
For Indiana County, the spread of influenza has slowed significantly. The Department of Health reported 51 new cases between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, compared to 298 new cases reported the prior week. The county’s total is now 824 cases, with 758 cases classified as type A and 66 as type B.
This represents the number of laboratory-confirmed flu cases that came from testing. There may be many more cases that have not been included because people either treat themselves by staying home or a doctor diagnoses just the symptoms and does not perform a full test.
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