This is an illuminating chart from the American College Health Association. Swine flu continues to increase nationwide, but there are still big differences between parts of the country, most connected to how long school has been in session. At the high end, we see 'attack' rates of swine flu of over 100 per 10,000 students for a lot of schools in the American South, which started in mid-August--though, for reasons unknown, Washington has a rate of over 360 per 10,000 students (so over 3% of college students already affected there, and this, like the other figures, probably understates how widespread it is). By contrast, where schools have only been open a couple of weeks, rates are as low as 10-20 per 10,000, but will presumably increase in the coming weeks.
The right-hand column in this chart shows the percentage change in total new cases from the prior week, which indicates, e.g., that in parts of the South, the flu may have already peaked, while in other areas, like New England, there are huge jumps in new cases, even though the overall total is low.
Recent Comments