Quieting down on the H1N1 front
Iowa has now officially moved from “widespread” to “regional” to “local” activity. As the graphs below demonstrate, H1N1 has left our state for the time being. We haven’t had a positive influenza A in our hospital lab for over 2 weeks, the percent of visits due to ILI at Iowa ILINet sites is back to near baseline, and the number of patients hospitalized for influenza has plummeted. 
Ironically, it is just this week that we got our first really big shipment of H1N1 vaccine (before, it was trickling in a few hundred doses at a time). So we’ll be doing most of the vaccinating after the virus has left town…yes, a “wave number next” could come along, but I doubt we’ll see another big bump in H1N1 cases in our state during the 09-10 season.
Decisions now begin to revolve around “walking back” the H1N1 response….when to lift visitor restrictions, how to approach vaccination going forward, and when we can begin treating H1N1 like……an influenza virus.
Ironically, it is just this week that we got our first really big shipment of H1N1 vaccine (before, it was trickling in a few hundred doses at a time). So we’ll be doing most of the vaccinating after the virus has left town…yes, a “wave number next” could come along, but I doubt we’ll see another big bump in H1N1 cases in our state during the 09-10 season.
Decisions now begin to revolve around “walking back” the H1N1 response….when to lift visitor restrictions, how to approach vaccination going forward, and when we can begin treating H1N1 like……an influenza virus.
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