Health officials: Columbia County students fell ill to influenza-B

ATLANTA - State health officials said Wednesday between 900 to 1,000 students fell ill in an influenza-B outbreak in ten Columbia County schools earlier this month. <br> <br> The epidemiologist for the East Central Health District of the Georgia Division of Public Health, Jonathan Adriano, said they began seeing clusters of illnesses in middle schools in Columbia County. <br> <br> The outbreak lasted for about a week. It caused an average absenteeism of between 14 percent and 18 percent in the county school district. Adriano said more than 230 students -- 26 percent of the school -- were absent from the flu at Riverside Middle School in the middle of January. Despite the absences, none of the schools, located near Martinez and Augusta, were forced to close. <br> <br> Last year the county did not have a flu season like this. <br> <br> State health officials helped county officials with the outbreak investigation and the state health lab confirmed samples to the type-B influenza strain. <br> <br> Flu activity has picked up in Georgia in recent weeks, with the state having six positive samples from Decatur and Atlanta of type-A and type-B strains of influenza, also known as the flu. The state had upgraded its flu activity status from sporadic to regional on Janyary 18, with reports of flu cases in various parts of the state. <br> <br> The flu is a contagious disease caused by the influenza virus. It attacks the respiratory tract. <br> <br> Most recover in one or two weeks but some can develop life-threatening complications and about 36,000 people die from it each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The flu also hospitalizes about 114,000 people each year.