#H1N1 Flu hits state hard, Alabama one of 16 states reporting heavy activity - http://t.co/JVJPKpWU (blog) http://t.co/BmFXflrC
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- They come in coughing, aching and feverish, filling doctors' offices and emergency rooms across the state. Alabama is being hit hard by the early flu season and is one of 16 states reporting high numbers of flu or flu-like illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're pretty much widespread," State Health Officer Don Williamson said. "We're seeing a big upturn. The last two weeks we've been just inundated," Bob Shepard, a spokesman for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said of the hospital's emergency room. "It's not necessarily flu, but it's flu and flu-like illness," Shepard said. The emergency room at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery is seeing about 20 cases each day of influenza, according to emergency room physician Dr. Urmil S. Patel. "It's much worse than the last three or four years," said Dr. Patel. Williamson said the primary strain circulating this year appears to be H3N2, an influenza A virus which he said has been associated in the past with more severe seasons. "H3N2 is a more severe strain than H1N1. It's not unusually severe in the sense of a pandemic sort of strain, but it certainly seems to be...
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