Four-week decline in flu-like cases, officials say

[I was so excited when I read the title of this article. By the time I was done reading it, I .....was no longer excited....]

Posted 17m ago
By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY

Federal health officials reported Monday that cases of flu-like illness in the USA have declined for four weeks in a row, though hospitalization rates remain high, especially for children younger than 4.

The steady decline in the USA and elsewhere prompted the World Health Organization to propose Friday that swine flu may have peaked in North America, the Caribbean and parts of Europe, though the "winter influenza season continues to be intense."

U.S. officials challenged WHO's hopeful assessment, saying it is too soon to declare that swine flu is tapering off.

"We are certainly nowhere near the end," says Daniel Jernigan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that, even after the month long decline, "we're still above the peak we had last winter."

Jernigan says there also was a drop in cases at this stage of the 1957 pandemic, which appears to offer the closest parallel to today's outbreak. But flu cases and deaths rebounded after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. "The conditions that influenza likes – winter with people crowding together – haven't even come yet," he says.

Deaths of children continue to mount, the CDC reported, with a record 27 during the week ending Nov. 21. That's the highest one-week total since swine flu, also known as H1N1, was identified in April. Doctors have reported about 200 pediatric swine flu deaths to the CDC, which says many more deaths probably have gone unreported.

As of Monday, 66 million doses of swine flu vaccine were available for states to order, and more were on the way, the CDC's Thomas Skinner says.