A preliminary report today from the state health department says influenza is “widespread” in Texas.
Sporadic, local, regional and widespread — the highest designation — are used to explain geographic flu activity.
Widespread means that flu-like illness has increased in more than half of the 11 regions in Texas, said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The suspected culprit for most of the illness is the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu. Health officials don’t expect seasonal flu to show up for another two weeks.
“It doesn’t mean one out of every two people in Texas has the flu,” McBride said. “It’s not surprising to have influenza starting earlier this year because H1N1 never went away.”
H1N1 has been spreading since the April outbreak in Mexico.
As of Sept. 12, Texas had regional illness — a step below the widespread activity reported in 21 states. CDC tests show that 99% of that week’s confirmed flu cases in the U.S. were Influenza A and half of those were the H1N1 strain.
All of last week’s positive samples in Texas were Influenza A. The few that were subtyped turned out to be H1N1.
If early reports prove correct, Texas will move into the highest flu activity category for the week ending Sept. 19.
On Sunday, the Texas Department of State Health Services began collecting data on confirmed H1N1 hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths.
State information will be posted on www.texasflu.org.