Cape Girardeau County flu report, COVID cases noted as emergency ends

Fears of a second spike in flu cases in Cape Girardeau County this year have proven to be unfounded as health officials reported just three cases of influenza A in April.

"We suspected we might have a year where there was a bimodal distribution, meaning two peaks (of flu) and we didn't see that," said epidemiologist Autumn Grim, who presented April's communicable disease report Tuesday, May 23, to the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center board of trustees.

January saw 75 occurrences of influenza A and B -- a number that dropped 93% to only five in February.

"No year is ever great to have the flu, but we didn't seem to have that second surge in 2023," she added.

PHC board vice president Georganne Syler was pleased by the numbers.

"We had a great flu year here, so to speak, despite some dire projections early on," Syler observed.

Sexually transmitted diseases

In the category of sexually transmitted diseases, syphilis cases numbered only five last month, but increases were seen in other STD categories.

Chlamydia cases totaled 36, while 16 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

"All STDs can lead to infertility if untreated, but people are particularly at risk with gonorrhea and chlamydia," Grim said. "Treatment for STDs is easy and pretty affordable. We can actually provide some treatment here at the health center for free."

The county health center, at 1121 Linden St. in Cape Girardeau, may be reached at (573) 335-7846. Normal business hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

COVID-19

Coronavirus cases continue to fall in the county, with 136 cases reported in April, down from the high of 409 in January.

"It's fewer cases than in March, and we believe physicians are not testing for COVID as much now," Grim said, noting the May 11 declaration formally ending the federal government's COVID-19 public health emergency.

"(COVID-19) is still out there and will remain because coronavirus is like flu now, in that COVID is now endemic in the population and we can expect a low level of the virus in the community from here on out," Grim said. "What we're seeing predominately right now is the omicron strain, the BA.5 variant that we saw last fall in the county. The vaccination does prevent it."

Of note

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are down 4.9% as of May 16.

COVID-19 deaths are down 11.8% as of May 13.

Only 17% of Americans have had an updated booster dose to combat coronavirus.

• Total U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations to date: 6,152,982.
• Total U.S. COVID-19-related deaths to date: 1,128,903.