Landlæknisembættið - Directorate of Health

16.10.2009

Confirmed cases of influenza. Cases of A(H1N1)v 2009 influenza are still on the increase

From 29 June to 11 October 2009, 2545 cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and laboratory confirmed A(H1N1)v cases have been reported in Iceland, of these, 1184 were males and 1361 were females.

Last week (week 41) there was doubling of confirmed weekly cases compared with the previous week. The influenza is spreading rapidly these days and last week the weekly number of diagnosed influenza cases was greater than any week up until then (fig. 1).

Figure 1

 

The A(H1N1)v 2009 influenza is now spreading in the capital area at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country (fig. 2), with a considerable increase in work-load on the health care service, both in the capital-area primary care service and at the Landspitali University Hospital (LUH).

Figure 2

 

Last week there seems to have been little influenza activity outside the capital but last weekend and in the beginning of this week the illness seemed to increase in the community at large resulting in a huge drop in school attendance at some schools outside the capital. So far, the local primary care services are not overloaded, it seems, although telephone inquiries about the illness have been quite numerous.


Confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1)v 2009 in Iceland
On 5 October 2009, a total of 323 cases of influenza A(H1N1)v 2009 had been laboratory confirmed at the LUH department of virology, 171 of them males and 152 females. At this point, individuals living in all parts of the country have been diagnosed with the disease.

During the past two weeks, there has been a large increase in the number of laboratory confirmed cases. The percentage of samples that proved to be A(H1N1)v positive also rose sharply in those two weeks, which means that those who are presently falling ill with ILI are very likely to be infected with A(H1N1)v 2009 influenza.

Chief Epidemiologist for Iceland

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