Georgia sees spike in swine flu

By Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia is seeing a spike in swine flu hospitalizations, having the most in the country for three weeks in a row, federal health officials said Monday.

It is too early to say whether Georgia or the country are seeing another wave of the illness, which had diminished across the nation for several months, the officials said.

But the number of people being hospitalized in Georgia equals the number of swine-flu hospitalizations when the disease peaked here last September. Officials stressed that no other state is seeing such an increase.

"In Georgia," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a CDC expert on influenza, "things appear to be different."

In the first two weeks of March, Georgia had 80 and 72 hospitalizations, respectively, according to the state Department of Community Health. In contrast, the first week of February saw 17 hospitalizations.

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was so concerned about the Georgia situation that it sent a team of researchers to investigate. CDC officials held a news conference Monday that focused on the Georgia problem.

Georgia's increase is reflected to some degree in other southeastern states, but not in other parts of the country, she said. She described the illness as "circulating intensely" here.

Georgia has one of the lowest immunization rates for swine flu, also known as H1N1, Schuchat said. State officials point out that the state's immunization rate for children, though, is above average for the country.

"Most of the hospitalizations that we've seen have occurred in ... adults with underlying conditions that put them at higher risks of severe influenza," Schuchat said. Underlying conditions include diabetes and heart disease.

The state health department, as well as county health departments, have been boosting their efforts to get people vaccinated, stressing that there is still an abundance of free vaccine.

Last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Georgia had more than 2.5 million doses of swine flu vaccine left.  Less than a third of Georgia's total allocation of 3.5 million doses -- 978,092 doses -- had been administered, according to the state.

The problem has been one of timing. Essentially, by the time the vaccine was widely available, the flu -- and public interest -- had peaked.

The CDC expects to release state-by-state rates for swine flu vaccination Thursday.

Neither Georgia nor the nation is seeing a significant increase in swine flu-related deaths, and there is no indication the virus has mutated into a more dangerous form, officials said

Swine flu first appeared last April and has hospitalized 1,012 Georgians and killed 60.