Case counts and trend line chart for pandemic flu in the United States July 24 2009

Here is a brief discussion of the swine flu situation in select states. The CDC is no longer publicly tracking case numbers.

July 24, 2009 is the last day that CDC is providing individual confirmed and probable cases of novel H1N1 influenza. CDC will report the total number of hospitalizations and deaths each week, and continue to use its traditional surveillance systems to track the progress of the novel H1N1 flu outbreak.

• Arizona: 947 cases as of July 22, 2009. 157 hospitalizations and 15 deaths. Median age of patients is 15, meaning that 473 cases are age 15 or younger. 71% of the cases are in patients under age 24.
• Texas: 5,151 cases, of which 1,205 are in Hidalgo County just upstream from Brownsville on the Rio Grande. No other Texas county has even half that number. Hidalgo County’s count has been climbing for the last several weeks, though the urban counties in Texas initially lead the case counts. 27 related deaths. Count is as of July 22.
• New Jersey: 1,414 cases as of June 22. 15 related deaths. Most N.J. cases are in those counties nearest New York City.
• New York City: New York City stopped publicly counting swine flu cases on July 7. Their site indicates that the last case count was 1,291. 47 related deaths are listed.
• New York: Outside of the five NYC boroughs, the state is reporting 1,114 cases through July 18. Erie County and Buffalo shows 269 cases of novel H1N1, by far the greatest number of cases outside of New York City. The other counties with high case counts are suburbs of NYC.
• Pennsylvania: As of July 23, Pennsylvania is reporting 1,965 cases of pandemic flu and 9 related deaths. With 462 cases, Philadelphia has more than double the cases count of any other Penn. county or city.
• Illinois: This state is still reporting. As of July 24, there are 3,404 cases of swine flu. There are 2,572 cases in Chicago and Cook county, 76% of the total cases for the state.
• Minnesota: This state does not have a high case total, 248. They are only counting hospitalizations now. 206 of the pandemic flu cases are in metro Minneapolis / St. Paul, illustrating the pattern for most states.
• Wisconsin: This state has the highest number of cases of swine flu in the United States. It is centered on Milwaukee and Madison, 4,029 and 565 cases in each community respectively.
• Miami – Dade County Florida: Florida stopped public reporting of pandemic flu cases within a couple of weeks after the outbreak began. As of July 24, Miami/Dade reported 924 cases and 10 deaths.

New York State map of pandemic flu case numbers by county as of 6-26-2009. Click on the image for a larger version.

This table ranks the New York State counties by pandemic flu case count, showing those counties with 10 or more cases. Cities in red are NYC metro. Blue cities are Albany metro.

Here is the latest report from New York State about pandemic swine flu or pandemic novel H1N1. New York City and surrounding counties are in this color. Albany County and surrounding counties are in this color. The city and metro area of Elmira remains without any recorded cases, despite having a prison. Bus loads of people arrive regularly from New York City to visit inmates and it would seem to be an ideal way for the disease to travel.

New York State map showing counties with pandemic swine flu - novel H1N1 cases for June 19 2009

New York State is currently reporting 1,756 recorded cases of pandemic swine flu / novel H1N1. New York City has recorded 1,032 cases. The city’s Department of Health has this to day:

Community transmission of the H1N1 virus appears to be declining in New York City, as emergency departments report lower numbers of visits due to influenza-like illness, the Health Department reported today. As expected, however, hospitalizations and fatalities continue to occur. As of June 19, the Health Department had recorded 748 hospitalizations and 30 deaths. The latest deaths occurred in persons aged 26-64.

The NYC area, the city and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester, have a total of 1,283 cases. Despite the number, the metro New York case count is far less than Chicago / Cook County, or Milwaukee.

In upstate New York, Erie County and Buffalo have recorded 155 cases. Onondaga County and Syracuse have 84 cases. Dutchess County, considered upstate by the “city folk”, has 31 cases. Jefferson County and Fort Drum have 28 cases.

Here is the New York State swine flu / novel H1N1 case update as of June 10, 2009, in the late afternoon.

The media spent a lot of wordage yesterday on mis-characterizing a report issued by the New York City Health Department. Sample headline:

NY Times: 12 Flu Victims Have Died, and Ill May Total 550,000

Here is the link to the report itself. In a telephone poll, enough participants reported influenza like illness (ILI) to suggest that 6.9% of New York City residents may have experienced an ILI. It was a self reported survey and no medical confirmations were done. An ILI is not novel H1N1 or swine flu. In fact, as NYS testing suggested in mid May, up to 88% of the people with an ILI did not have any variant of the influenza virus.

The NY Times has an incorrect headline.

Here is the latest map of NYS counties with H1N1 outbreaks. Upstate, Erie County and Buffalo are running a very close second to Onondaga County and Syracuse. Monroe County and Rochester are running a very distant third.

New York State map of counties with novel H1N1 or swine flu cases as of June 10 2009

New York State has 1,241 cases of novel H1N1 or swine flu. New York City, just the 5 boroughs, has 820 cases. The city and its surrounding counties, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester, have a total case count of 1,009 cases.