Each year from October to mid-May, Georgia's Division of Public Health tracks cases of influenza (flu) throughout the State with the help of volunteer sentinel physicians. In addition, during the summer of 2002, Georgia was one of several states to participate in a pilot influenza summer surveillance program. While each individual case of influenza is not reportable to health authorities, we monitor flu activity by watching the percent of doctors' visits that are for "influenza-like illness" (fever >100º F and cough and/or sore throat). When these doctors visits for "influenza-like illnesses" begin to increase compared to baseline levels, we suspect that influenza is active in an area. Baseline levels are considered to be 0-3%.

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