The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is pleased to present the Georgia Weekly Influenza and other Respiratory Diseases Report throughout the respiratory viral disease season. The purpose of the report is to monitor the spread of influenza and other respiratory viruses and measure the impact that infections have on illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.
In Georgia, influenza is not a reportable condition with the exception of influenza-associated deaths and outbreaks. Therefore, this surveillance report is possible through DPH’s partnerships with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia Emerging Infections Program, and a number of voluntary reporting healthcare providers and laboratories.
Ongoing surveillance is essential to monitor changes in circulating influenza viruses, guide treatment decisions, and to understand the impact influenza and other respiratory viral pathogens are having on our community.
*Cumulative data may include updated numbers from previous weeks.
Please refer media requests to Nancy.Nydam@dph.ga.gov. All other requests can be sent to contactpublichealth@dph.ga.gov.
The National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) and World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating laboratories (a combination of clinical and public health laboratories) report the total number of respiratory specimens tested for influenza and the number of positive for influenza, by virus type. Clinical data is used to monitor increasing or decreasing influenza activity. Public Health Laboratories provide data about influenza virus subtypes and lineages which is used to monitor the proportion of viruses by subtype and lineages.
The U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) monitors outpatient healthcare visits due to influenza-like illness (ILI), not laboratory confirmed influenza. ILI is defined as fever (temperature of 100ºF [37.8ºC] or greater) and cough and/or sore throat.
A total of 102 sentinel providers reported data for week 52, 4.6% of patient visits were for ILI. This is above the regional baseline of 3.1%*.
ILINet data should be interpreted with caution as it may include individuals who are seeking care due to other respiratory illness such as SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, healthcare seeking behavior may have changed due to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2.
*The regional baseline is formulated by averaging ILI percentage during weeks of endemic activity determined by laboratory results for influenza. HHS Region 4 (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, and TN) (Baseline: 3.1%).
ILI Activity Levels measure ILI activity each week. Activity levels are based on the percent of outpatient visits in Georgia due to ILI compared to the 3-year average of ILI visits during weeks with little or no influenza virus circulation. During week 52, the activity level in Georgia was 9 - High.
The Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-Net) reports laboratory confirmed influenza hospitalizations in the eight-county metro Atlanta area (Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Douglas, Gwinnett, Rockdale, and Newton) for the 2022-2023 influenza season. There were 47 laboratory confirmed influenza hospitalizations confirmed for week 52.
A total of 1825 laboratory confirmed influenza hospitalizations have been reported for the 2022-2023 season.
Influenza-associated deaths (in all ages) are reportable by law in the state of Georgia. To be confirmed as a as influenza-associated death, the person must have a clinically compatible illness, a positive influenza test, no documented recovery between the illness and death.
There were 0 influenza-associated deaths confirmed for week 52 in Georgia.
A total of 35 influenza-associated deaths have been confirmed for the 2022-2023 season.
Influenza outbreaks are reportable by law in the state of Georgia. A confirmed influenza outbreak is defined as any cluster of illness with at least one associated influenza positive individual.
0 influenza outbreaks were reported for week 52.
A total of 297 laboratory confirmed influenza outbreaks have been reported in Georgia for the 2022-2023 season.
Data from NREVSS are also analyzed to measure the RSV seasonality. Antigen and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are analyzed separately to determine the start and end of RSV season. Season onset is defined as the first week of two consecutive weeks when the percent positive of ALL laboratory confirmed tests are greater than or equal a certain threshold. The end is defined as the first week of two consecutive weeks when the percent positive of ALL laboratory confirmed tests are less than a certain threshold. For antigen-based testing, the threshold is 10% and for PCR the threshold is 3%.
During week 52, clinical laboratories in Georgia reported testing 3099 (2.3% positive) antigen specimens and 718 (1.8% positive) PCR specimens.
Trends in influenza, RSV, and other respiratory viruses are displayed below using NREVSS polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing data.