Influenza reports are light for Youngstown area at start of flu season

October 23, 2011 at 1:15p.m.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

There is little laboratory-confirmed influenza in the Mahoning Valley early in the 2011-12 flu season, but a non-flu respiratory virus is making the rounds.

According to the Mahoning County District Board of Health, this fall only one hospitalization for Influenza A and one positive test for that strain of flu from a doctor’s office have been confirmed in Youngstown.

Hospital emergency- department surveillance shows a slight increase in respiratory complaints and school absenteeism.

Checks with hospitals in Salem, Youngstown and Warren, however, found the incidence generally light. Several school districts in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, including Youngstown, Boardman, Joseph Badger and Mathews, reported no unusually high absenteeism among students or staff for this time of year.

But a dearth of the laboratory-confirmed flu doesn’t mean numbers of people aren’t showing up at hospital emergency rooms and doctor’s offices with flu-like symptoms.

Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley in Boardman has treated a lot of children with flu-like symptoms, but those tested for influenza have come back negative, said Annamarie Sofran, hospital spokeswoman.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.