Most of the state of Ohio has experienced influenza outbreak, according to Kristopher Weiss, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).
"We are reporting widespread flu activity to CDC," Weiss said.
Weiss said there have been three H1N1 related deaths in Ohio confirmed as of Thursday.
Two of the reported deaths were in June, and the third was in early September. Weiss could not address these cases specifically or give names, however, he said the deaths were from Butler, Franklin and Cuyahoga counties.
Since Aug. 30, Weiss said there have been 89 confirmed flu associated hospitalizations, and of those, 32 were confirmed as the H1N1 pandemic strain. All cases are being treated as if they were H1N1, although testing is not being done for each individual case.
Weiss said students should stay away from class until they have rid of their fevers for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) implemented a new tracking system for influenza hospitalization and death tracking Aug. 30.
According to the CDC Web site, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 19, 10,082 hospitalizations and 936 deaths associated with influenza virus infection or based on syndromic surveillance for influenza and pneumonia, were reported.
According to the CDC, an Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) is determined if an individual has a temperature reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and has a cough and/or sore throat (in the absence of a known cause other than influenza).
The American College Health Association weekly college case data from the week ending Sept.18 reported Ohio institutions of higher education participating in this ACHA ILI surveillance network reported 102 new cases of ILIs. The reported population served was 120,368 and the attack rate per 10,000 served was 8.5 percent.
For the week ending Sept. 25, there were 2 new cases of ILIs, the total population served was 108, 194 and the attack rate per 10,000 was 9.6 percent.
It is possible that Miami is participating in these surveys, however, according to Victor Leino, research director for ACHA, they do not release the names of participating institutions in the surveys.
