The Kane County Health Department‘s Influenza Surveillance Summary for the second-to-last week of 2014 shows that emergency-room visits for flu-like symptoms are staying high for the third straight week.

Also, four long-term care, assisted-living facilities reported outbreaks of influenza for Week 51 of the year, which ran from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20, 2014.

The report includes the collection of data from hospital emergency rooms, laboratories and public schools. Some schools were off on Wednesday of the report week, but participants reported the following aggregate measures:

• About 9.37 percent of participating hospital emergency room visits was for Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI).
• During Week 51, labs reported that 767 of 1,718 (44.64 percent) specimens tested for influenza were positive.
• Of the 767 positive specimens tested, 723 (94.3 percent) were positive for influenza A, 41 (5.3 percent) were positive for influenza B and 3 (0.4 percent) were positive for A and B. No other specimen tested positive for week ending Dec. 20, 2014.
• Schools were not in session on Wednesday of week 51 due to winter break. Therefore no school ILI absenteeism data was collected for this reporting week.
• As of week ending Dec. 20, a total of 21 cases of influenza-related ICU admissions were reported to the Health Department. Of these, eight cases were reported for this reporting week.
• The mean age for all cases reported thus far is 69 years. The age range of cases is 28 to 95 years. No influenza associated pediatric deaths were reported.
• To date, four outbreaks of influenza have been reported in long-term care/assisted-living facilities in Kane County. All four outbreaks were during this reporting week.

Helpful Flu Information and Resources For Kane County Businesses

• Seasonal Flu Information for Workplaces & Employees  
• Seasonal Flu Information for Businesses & Employees 
• Seasonal Flu Information Toolkit for Businesses & Employees  

SOURCE: Kane County Health Department