‘We’re sitting at a 10,’ Georgia health official says of current flu cases in midstate

If you think this is a bad year for the flu, it’s not all in your head.

Houston Healthcare reports a six-fold increase in the number of positive cases of influenza compared to last year.

The North Central Health District of Georgia tracks reported flu each season and rates the severity on a scale of 1 to 10.

“Right now, we’re sitting at a 10,” Michael Hokanson, public information officer for the district, said Thursday.

Although the district gets wellness reports from public schools, Hokanson was trying to gather information about an outbreak of illness that closed Twiggs Academy in Jeffersonville for the latter half of this week.

“We are working on speaking with some of the folks at Twiggs,” Hokanson said.

He was not sure if the school in Jeffersonville was seeing flu or another type of virus.

Typically flu cases surge after the holidays when families have gotten together from all parts of the country, he said.

“This flu season is a little bit harsher,” Hokanson said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia reached high levels of influenza-like illness during the last two weeks of 2016.

The Telegraph inquired about flu-related emergency room visits at local hospitals in Macon, Warner Robins and Dublin.

Megan Allen, publications coordinator for Medical Center, Navicent Health, explained that emergency room population is their guide, although confirmation of influenza cases comes through the health district.

“We send tests performed in our ER to their lab for confirmation,” Allen responded in an email.

Doctors at Navicent Health emergency centers and urgent care centers are reporting high incident of flu A and flu B, Allen stated.

The Pediatric Emergency Center also noted a high number of respiratory syncytial virus in very small children.

Priscilla Raffield, public relations and marketing coordinator, for Houston Healthcare, said physicians are seeing a dramatic increase of flu cases at Houston Medical Center, Perry Hospital and local med-stops.

Between last September and Sunday, the companies’ facilities have seen 205 positive cases, compared to a total of 34 from the same time period last season.

At Coliseum Health System, based in Macon, doctors are not seeing any drastic increases in the flu at Coliseum Medical Centers and Northside Hospital, said Jennifer Jones, marketing manager.

In Dublin at Fairview Park hospital, doctors saw a peak in influenza at the end of December and a trickle of patients presenting with flu-like symptoms since, said Lindsay Black, VP of marketing for the hospital in Laurens County.

Health care professionals encourage you to wash hands frequently and cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or crook of your arm.

If you have symptoms, stay home and try to isolate yourself as much as possible from family and friends.

This story was originally published January 12, 2017 at 12:37 PM with the headline "‘We’re sitting at a 10,’ Georgia health official says of current flu cases in midstate."