No confirmed flu cases in Iowa yet

The flu has not yet come to Iowa. Nebraska’s public-health department reports it’s confirmed that a middle-aged woman had a case of Influenza B, which is a less serious strain among many that go around every year. She didn’t require hospital treatment, and doctors say every nursing-home patient in Nebraska’s been vaccinated so the disease isn’t a high concern. Kevin Teale in Iowa’s public-health department says just like summertime cases of West Nile Virus, the agency will get reports from doctors and do tests in the state hygienic lab before announcing whether an illness is genuinely influenza. Though there isn’t a confirmed case yet in Iowa, Teale says they’ve seen flu now in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, too, so it’s just a matter of time before the annual winter onset of the illness.