Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

Jasper and Perry counties have recorded Mississippi's first flu cases for the 2010-2011 influenza season.

Flu shots will be available at all the state Department of Health’s county health departments by the end of this week. Starting this year, the seasonal flu vaccine is recommended for anyone age 6 months and older.............continues

Flu season in Mississippi has begun, with two laboratory-confirmed cases now reported by MSDH.

JACKSON, Miss. -- A local physician said Wednesday that there's a stomach bug going around.

"It will spread all over Mississippi, but we're seeing it locally now. When the kids went back to school, they're in close proximity to each other, so therefore, if one child has the stomach virus, or bug as we like to call it, it will spread from child to child, teachers, then it goes to their houses," Dr. Stephen Coachys said.

The latest bug isn't the only concern people have, Coachys said. Flu season is under way and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that there will be three different flu strains circulating this flu season.

Week 40, ending 9 Oct 2010

Since September there have been four respiratory samples that were positive by influenza PCR testing. Thress were positive for Influenza A (H3), the other confirmed influenza was a Flu B.

Posted December 29, 2010

OXFORD -- Mississippi physicians are reporting a jump in patients showing up with the flu or flu-like symptoms, and the state Department of Health is encouraging residents to get flu shots before things get worse.

Physicians and other health care providers reported that 9.4 percent of patients they treated between Dec. 12 and 18 exhibited influenza-like illness, public health officials reported Tuesday.

That number compares to 6.2 percent the previous week and 6.4 percent during the same period a year ago.

ILI numbers for the 2009-10 season were complicated by the swine flu, which struck 35 people in DeSoto County, according to state Public Health Department statistics.

The 2010-11 flu season is already under way, according to acting State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers.

"Through our sentinel system, we know that seasonal influenza is now geographically widespread in Mississippi," Byers said. "So far, testing performed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that the types of flu causing illness this season are a good match with this year's flu vaccine. There is still time to get the flu shot before peak season hits in January through March."

County numbers are not available, but the Health Department's districts 1 and 2, which cover most of north Mississippi, are showing increased flu activity, Byers said.

District 1 covers DeSoto, Tate, Tunica, Panola, Grenada, Coahoma, Quitman, Yalobusha and Tallahatchie counties.

District 2 covers Marshall, Lafayette, Benton, Tippal, Alcorn, Pontotoc, Union, Lee, Prentiss, Itawamba and Tishomingo counties
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TWO WEEKS AGO, Chad Smith, a junior fullback for Forrest County AHS, told Aggie coach Larry Dolan that he wasn’t going to make it to that day’s off-season weightlifting session.

“We had our banquet that night, and he texted me, ‘Coach, I’m sick and throwing up,’” Dolan said. “I knew it was serious, because he never missed a workout.”

Two days later, on Dec. 18, Chad Smith died from what are believed to be complications from double pneumonia, leaving a school and a community to ponder the cosmic question: “Why?”