Some doctors and emergency rooms recently reported a plateau in swine flu cases, so aren’t we getting a mixed message?
In a word, yes. Some Massachusetts hospitals say patients coming to the E.R. with flu-like symptoms are leveling off. Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s emergency department, for example, had 93 swine flu cases in the first nine days of November, but only 78 cases in the second nine days of the month. And some college health clinics, including at Boston University and MIT, say their volume of sick students is slowing. Nationally, the American College Health Association reported this week that new cases of flu among college students have started to drop, also suggesting a peak.
