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Flu Epidemic

Friday, January 25, 2013

Influenza on the Wane in Twin Cities

Department of Health says there were an additional 15 deaths last week, but that number of people hospitalized with flu-like symptoms has fallen dramatically.

Influenza killed 15 more Minnesotans last week, bringing the total number of state deaths in the current outbreak to 75--more than the total number of state residents killed during the last big outbreak during 2009-10. But the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) weekly flu update, released Thursday afternoon, also contained good news: Only 208 people across the state were newly hospitalized last week with laboratory-confirmed influenza, a big drop from the 476 hospitalized the previous week. Health Department spokesman Doug Schultz told WCCO that it will be another week before officials know for sure where the flu season has peaked in Minnesota. But he added that trends are pointing in that direction. For example, there were only nine …

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Flu Boost Worrying Health Officials—Where To Get A Shot

This season's outbreak has sickened over 120 locally since Dec. 22.

According to the Star-Tribune, this winter's flu outbreak is worrying state health officials. With nearly 300 sickened this early in the season—120 of which came down with la grippe in the last calendar week of December 2012—a state health official the paper talked to thought that "this has the potential to be severe." Since Dec. 22, the number of ill people showing up at emergency rooms and clinics has continued unabated, say health officials. And some say it's just as bad as it was at the same time of year during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic when 1,800 people in Minnesota were hospitalized over a 12-month period. Since the official start of the flu season in October, 297 people have been hospitalized. The Health Department will release updated…

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