Flu Season Peaking

By Jens Manuel Krogstad, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Feb. 1–WATERLOO — Three Cedar Valley schools are the latest to bear the brunt of this year’s flu season.

Kittrell Elementary and McKinstry Elementary in Waterloo and North Cedar Elementary in Cedar Falls all reported absenteeism rates of at least 10 percent this week, said Ann Rogers, Black Hawk County Health Department community health program manager. Last week, schools in 20 counties across the state, including Longfellow Elementary, reported 10 percent or more absenteeism due to flu-like illnesses.

The Centers for Disease Control reported last week Iowa is one of three states with widespread influenza, the highest activity level.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reports the flu season, which has hit school-aged children hardest, is likely peaking in the state. The number of confirmed flu cases has nearly doubled to 58 since last week, said department spokesman Kevin Teale.

Those numbers are presumed to be much lower than the actual count because of underreporting from the public and health professionals. Local health departments don’t ask doctors to report flu cases once a particular strain has been confirmed in the county, Rogers said.

State health officials urge parents to get children immunized against the flu to protect them against the unusually high number of flu strains this winter. While most Iowa flu seasons result in one or two strains, this year health officials have detected three.

Vaccinations can protect against all three flu strains, and health officials urge everyone, especially children, to receive flu shots. To help prevent spread of the flu, stay home from work and keep children home from school if any flu-like symptoms appear.

Approximately 1,000 Iowans die of influenza or pneumonia each year.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.

E. coli update

December’s E. coli outbreak was likely caused by cow manure seeping into California lettuce fields, said Mark Linda, Black Hawk County Health Department environmental health manager.

Linda said DNA tests of dairy cattle manure in a pasture near central California lettuce growing fields genetically matched the E. coli strain that made 81 people sick, including 47 in Iowa, after they ate at Taco John’s.

“Recent information suggests it was (transferred) through surface wash of dairy cattle manure onto the lettuce fields,” he said.

The E. coli outbreak cost the health department $16,810, compared to the $45,678 bill of last springs mumps outbreak.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

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