| Summer 2002 Flu Strain Summary |

This summer, Georgia is one of several states participating in a pilot influenza summer surveillance program. Several health-care providers from across the state have volunteered to act as sentinel reporters. Influenza sentinel reporters report weekly the total number of patients they have seen, as well as the number of those patients who were seen for influenza-like illness. The sentinels also send occasional throat specimens from flu-like illness cases to the Georgia Public Health Laboratory for isolation and characterization of circulating influenza viruses. Although influenza activity typically peaks during the winter months, influenza viruses circulate year-round and remain a threat to persons who are very young or old or who have chronic medical conditions. The emergence of a novel influenza strain capable of causing a pandemic is also a possibility, and year-round surveillance improves public health's ability to rapidly identify new strains of the virus.

| Summer 2002 Flu Strain Summary |