COLUMBIA, S.C. — Flu season has arrived early and hard in South Carolina, which now trails only Louisiana for influenza activity on the newest national flu map published by federal health officials at the CDC.
State numbers show how quickly it is building. The South Carolina Department of Public Health’s Flu Watch report for Oct. 25 through Oct. 31 classified flu as widespread statewide, with every main indicator rising from the week before.
The state logged 1,079 lab-confirmed flu tests that week, nearly half of the 2,279 confirmed so far this season. Sixty hospitals reported 137 flu-related hospitalizations, bringing the season total to 350, and 5.1% of patient visits to the state’s sentinel doctors were for flu-like illness, above the usual baseline. No flu deaths had been reported.
Hospitals are responding. Prisma Health began keeping visitors 15 and younger away from hospitalized patients on Tuesday, saying the step protects patients and staff while infection rates run higher than normal. Exceptions can be made in some cases, such as end-of-life visits, and the system asks all visitors to wear masks and anyone feeling ill to stay home. The limits will stay until illness levels fall.
Flu cases usually build through the fall and winter and often peak from December into February, so health officials expect activity to keep climbing. The CDC recommends a flu shot every year for everyone 6 months and older.
Filed under: Irmo SC Health News
