The CDC continues to release data on Fridays for the previous week. The data in this report is for the week ending November 7 and was released November 13, 2009.

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1. Visits to doctors for influenza like illness: second week that rates have declined. Now 6.7% and the seasonal baseline is 2.3%. Note, however, that many doctors are telling patients who call with ILI symptoms not to come in to the office unless it is serious.
2. Hospitalizations for lab confirmed influenza: still climbing.
3. Deaths from pneumonia and influenza: still increasing.
4. 46 states report widespread flu activity. That is down two states since the last weekly report.
5. Virus typing continues to find nearly all specimens are pandemic H1N1, swine flu.

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CBS News Exclusive: Study Of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared

Chuck Simmins states:

I looked at the story and my jaw dropped. Without any research at all, I could tell something was wrong with their numbers.

CBS graphic for story on confirmed H1N1 testing

These numbers are supposed to be through late July, when the CDC asked the states to change their reporting. As we have shown in our prior reports, many of the states had ceased reporting case numbers long before.

Florida:

• Florida had stopped publicly posting case counts before Memorial Day in May, 2009. The numbers in the table were updated with the CDC’s count.
• CBS states that by the end of July, Florida had examined 8,853 specimens and only 17% were positive for H1N1. That means the CBS number of confirmed cases at that point is 1,505.
• However, based on the cases reported to the CDC by July 17, Florida had 2,188 confirmed cases.

California:

• CBS is reporting that California had examined 13,704 specimens and only 2% were H1N1. That makes the CBS case count 274.
• On July 16, 2009, California was reporting 2,655 confirmed cases and 513 probable cases of swine flu.

Alaska:

• CBS is reporting that Alaska had examined 722 specimens and only 1% were H1N1. That makes the CBS case count 7.
• As of August 31, a month after the apparent cutoff for the CBS data, Alaska reported 460 confirmed cases of swine flu.

Georgia:

• The final state that CBS selected to graph was Georgia. CBS says 3,117 specimens and only 2% were H1N1. That gives CBS a confirmed case count of 62.
• Through July 15, 2009, Georgia reported 178 confirmed cases of swine flu.

From the beginning, we raised questions about the data on swine flu. We noted, and were the media source responsible for correcting, the nearly three week delay in updating California’s numbers. We noted the “lost” cases, where the numbers on the state site were higher than those reported by the CDC.

We have editorialized about the lack of preparedness on the part of public health authorities to handle a large disease outbreak. Their unwillingness to divert resources from other areas such as lead paint abatement and childhood obesity has been noted.

We agree that the decision to stop widespread testing was unwise. We agree that there are a number of influenza like illnesses (ILI) circulating.

But this story by CBS does nothing to advance the cause. The numbers are just plain wrong. The selection of the four states they chose for their graph is also misleading. Alaska and Georgia did not suffer a major outbreak of swine flu in the spring. California’s was mid sized and Florida’s was, as well. If CBS wanted to look at states, Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington would have been ideal picks. That is where the pandemic took hold the worst.

Just a brief summary of various closings and other news about the swine flu pandemic.

• 400 cases at West Virginia University
• 175 cases at Dartmouth
• Tucson charter school closed due to illness
• Cases in public schools near Tucson
• Catholic high school in Maryland closes due to illness
• Outbreak at school in Central Pennsylvania
• Watertown, NY area school with outbreak

And, then there is this piece of crap from Communist China:

CHINA reported its first death from swine flu on the mainland yesterday, an 18-year-old woman in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s capital Lhasa. The government said it was rushing tens of thousands of doses of flu vaccine to the western city.

The woman in Maizhokunggar County in Lhasa died of the H1N1 virus at about 3:20am on Sunday at the county hospital. She was admitted the previous day after experiencing coughing, a sore throat and muscular stiffness.

Her body temperature was as high as 40 degrees, a Tibetan regional health department official said yesterday.

The Ministry of Health sent 200,000 doses of vaccine to Lhasa by air yesterday to help contain the virus.

Meanwhile, Beijing reported its first swine flu case “with heavy symptoms” yesterday, a municipal health bureau official said.

A 72-year-old man is on a breathing machine in Beijing Ditan Hospital. He had suffered from chronic obstructive lung diseases for about 20 years and was confirmed to be infected with the H1N1 virus last Friday with a body temperature as high as 38.5 degrees, the official said.

The Chinese mainland had reported 21,453 confirmed cases by yesterday, about 78.7 percent of whom had recovered, according to the Ministry of Health.

Does anyone believe that this is the first death, much less the first case in the Chinese capital? China rushed a Swine Flu vaccine into production faster than any of the Western nations. Any bets on the safety of that vaccine?

The official end of summer is this week along America’s North Shore and that means schools from pre-K to college level are in sessions. This also signals the expected second wave of pandemic influenza, pandemic swine flu. The CDC report on influenza and influenza like illnesses (ILI) is for the week ending September 12, 2009.

Percentage of Visits for Influenza-like Illness (ILI) Reported by the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet), National Summary 2008-2009 and Previous Two Seasons for Week Ending September 12, 2009 - CDC

Traveling across the northern tier of states, the New England region had a very low incidence of ILI from reporting doctors and facilities.

New York and New Jersey are significantly different. Over five percent of the visits to reporting doctors were for ILI. That approaches the numbers seen during the spring wave of pandemic swine flu. This week, week 36, fall into the same levels as weeks 21-25 as the CDC records the year.

The Midwest region is the peak for ILI reporting for the last 52 weeks. The percentage, 3.1%, is higher than during the sprint wave of pandemic flu. Since the Chicago metro area and the Milwaukee metro area led the United States in recorded H1N1 cases last spring, this datum suggest that the illness has returned and is even more widespread.

The Northern Rockies are near their peak from the late winter.

The Northwest had its reports of ILI climb in the week ending September 12. The percentage is still below the spring peaks, and the next few weeks should tell us if this was a spike or the pandemic has returned in strength. the Seattle metro area was among the nation’s leaders in the spring.

Here’s what the CDC has to say about the week ending September 12.

• Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) are increasing nationally. Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness are higher than what is expected during this time of year and have increased for five consecutive weeks now. This is very unusual for this time of year.
• Total influenza hospitalization rates for adults and children are similar to or lower than seasonal influenza hospitalization rates depending on age group, but are higher than expected for this time of year.
• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was low and within the bounds of what is expected at this time of year.
• Twenty-one states are reporting widespread influenza activity at this time. They are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Any reports of widespread influenza activity in September are very unusual.
• Almost all of the influenza viruses identified so far are 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These viruses remain similar to the viruses chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, and remain susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir with rare exceptions.

Here are case counts for the pandemic swine flu, or pandemic novel H1N1 from the top five cities in the United States.

1. Milwaukee: 3,085 cases
2. Chicago and Cook county: 2,203 cases
3. New York City with Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester counties: 1,449 cases
4. New York City alone: 1,149 cases
5. Hildalgo County, Texas: 600 cases

Here is the latest pandemic flu case count for selected cities and metro areas. Those cities in gray have ceased posting their counts, or are no longer counting.