Health dept. hesitant to call flu peak

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Health officials are hoping what appears to be a decrease in the spread of the virus will continue. They're tracking two things to determine the possible decrease: school absenteeism and emergency room visits by people with the flu. There's good news in both areas.

At the peak of the flu season, so far, the absenteeism rate in Marion County's schools was as high as 14 percent. That's now down to 8 percent.

Emergency room visits by people with the flu are down, too. A graph from the Marion County Health Department shows the percentage went up steadily from the middle of August to the middle of October, and then started coming down.

"I mean that we saw at least 11 percent of our emergency room visits consisting of someone having a flu-like illness," said Marion County Health Department Director Virginia Caine, "and it is, just last week, dropped down to six percent."

But Dr. Caine said she wants to wait another week to see whether the numbers keep dropping before she'll feel more confident we're past the flu's peak.

"We've had sporadic increases and drops. And so, it is definitely too early for us to say that we're going to have a sustained lowered activity."

Dr. Caine said flu viruses sometimes reappear in second waves that can be even more serious than the first. She stressed the importance of continuing to take precautions that will prevent the spread of the flu, even if the numbers truly are heading down.

Those precautions include washing your hands and, for at-risk groups, getting vaccinated.