Health officials: Augusta-area flu is ``explosive epidemic''

AUGUSTA - Augusta medical officials said Thursday an influenza-B outbreak in Richmond and Columbia counties has flooded area emergency rooms and has resulted in hundreds of student absences. <br> <br> The bout of influenza, also known as the flu, has been so severe that the children&#39;s emergency department at the Medical College of Georgia&#39;s medical center broke on Monday its all-time record -- 136 children -- for the number of kids they see in a day, twice as many as usual, according to Doctor James Wilde of the Medical College of Georgia. <br> <br> Wilde said, ``It&#39;s an explosive epidemic. We&#39;re completely underwater; I&#39;m hearing from the community pediatricians that when they open their doors in the morning there are sometimes dozens of people waiting to be seen.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The situation is such that Augusta medical officials today requested that parents of healthy children with the flu not immediately come to a doctor because flu symptoms such as fever usually will subside within six days. <br> <br> Wilde said, ``We called a news conference of community pediatricians plus medical center pediatricians to come up with a plan for how we can alleviate the tidal wave of patients hitting the emergency rooms and doctors&#39; offices.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> They have requested that schools in the area not require a doctor&#39;s note for students who were sick to get back to school. That practice is flooding doctors offices. Wilde said school officials now are allowing parents through February to write a note to allow their child to attend school. <br> <br> On Wednesday, state health officials said about one-thousand students fell ill from influenza-B in ten Columbia County schools and the outbreak, which mainly had affected children and not adults, had been on the decline. Flu outbreaks spread rapidly among children and large outbreaks are not uncommon.