WICU12

It's now March and Erie County still has not seen a single case of the seasonal flu.  CLICK FOR VIDEO

Charlotte Berringer has worked at the Erie County Health Department for more than 25 years. She says she has not seen a March 1st come by during those 25+ years, in which there has not been any seasonal flu.  

The season starts in October and usually runs until warm weather arrives. And this is not just an Erie County thing.  Other areas of the country are not seeing the seasonal flu either.  In the Southern Hemisphere, whose flu season preceeds ours, those countries did not see much seasonal flu.

But health professionals are reminding us.  Do not believe that we are out of the woods yet.

"It doesn't mean it won't happen yet," Berringer said.  "But at the same time, the further and further out we go towards spring and summer, the less likely it seems it would occur.  But one thing we know about flu viruses, you cannot predict them.  You absolutely cannot predict them," she said.

The reason we have not seen any seasonal flu yet, is because the H1N1 flu was so powerful earlier this season. It outcompeted and overwhelmed all other viruses.  There was fear that a second wave of the swine flu would bear down on the region by now.  That never came, but health officials are not yet ruling out that that second wave will indeed come.

Erie County recorded 1,591 cases of swine flu this season. In 93% of those cases, the person was under 50 years of age.  81% were under 25 years old.

The one death from swine flu was an elderly citizen.
     

John Last