LI sees only moderate flu activity for now

With wintertime respiratory viruses causing widespread illnesses in some parts of New York - while seeming to bypass others, including Long Island - experts Monday said it's still too early to determine precisely how flu season will shake out.

"It's not just the flu that we're seeing this time of year," said Dr. Gary Leonardi, director of the virology laboratory at Nassau University Medical Center where he leads a regionwide surveillance program to identify the types of pathogens that trigger a range of infectious illnesses. Leonardi's lab analyzes respiratory samples from patients throughout Long Island and elsewhere.

Right now, Leonardi said Monday, Long Island is seeing only moderate flu activity but many residents appear to be battling bouts of RSV - respiratory syncytial virus - a respiratory infectious agent that causes symptoms similar to influenza.

"We are seeing a lot of RSV," added Leonardi. "Today we got an unusual sample from an 87-year-old woman who was both flu positive and RSV positive."

Long Island's moderate bout with the flu is in sharp contrast to statistics emerging from New York City and pockets of upstate New York where flu trackers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified those areas as regions of widespread flu activity.

"The flu is unpredictable," Leonardi said, underscoring that areas of moderate activity can shift to widespread activity within days if the virus enters vast pockets of unvaccinated people. The current vaccine, he said, protects against three types of flu, H3N2, H1N1 and B. Most of the flu samples Leonardi has typed to date have been H3N2.

Federal flu trackers also study the number of pediatric deaths as a harbinger of virulent flu season and so far only one has been recorded nationwide this flu season. The 4-year-old died last month in Westchester County.