TYLER, Texas — Medical centers across East Texas have seen hundreds of positive flu cases in January.
According to UT Health East Texas, their staff has had more than 500 tests come back positive for the flu.
That number accounts for cases seen in the hospital system's main emergency room, the South Broadway Avenue ER and inpatients.
According to hospital officials, they have seen the following number of cases week-by-week:
- Week of January 7 - 136
- Week of January 14 - 125
- Week of January 21 - 149
- Week of January 28 - 145
For the month of January, CHRISTUS Good Shepherd hospitals saw 239 cases, while CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances and the system's associated clinics confirmed 291 positive flu tests.
Nacogdoches Memorial Health has confirmed 34 positive flu tests so far in 2019. Since July 2018, 67 people have tested positive for the flu at NMH.
CHI St. Luke's Health – Memorial Lufkin has treated 28 cases of the flu this month.
For the week ending on January 26, the Walgreen's Flu Index listed the Tyler-Longview (Nacogdoches and Lufkin) area as No. 2 on the nationwide list of Top 10 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) with Flu Activity.
In the state rankings, Texas came in at No. 4.
The Walgreens Flu Index is compiled using retail prescription data for antiviral medications used to treat influenza across Walgreens locations nationwide. The data is analyzed at state and geographic market levels to measure absolute impact and incremental change of antiviral medications on a per store average basis, and does not include markets in which Walgreens has fewer than 10 retail locations.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, flu-like activity is high and widespread for the first time across Texas in 2019.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services says the percentage of patient visits due to flu-like illness and the percentage of specimens testing positive for the flu reported by hospital laboratories increased. No flu-related pediatric deaths have been reported. However, they did confirm four flu-related outbreaks across the Lone Star State. In addition to flu, other respiratory viruses, especially rhinovirus/enterovirus, were detected in Texas during the third week of January.
