While actual influenza cases remain low this season, a soup of other winter illnesses has made plenty of Tristate residents sick and kept area hospitals busy.

        In the past week, surges of patients have prompted local hospitals to go “on diversion” 55 times. That compares to 112 diversions for all of February 2001, which set the monthly record, according to the Greater Cincinnati Health Council.

        A diversion means that hospitals ask life squads to take patients elsewhere when possible for all or part of an eight-hour shift. Exceptions are made for unstable patients and for patients who insist on going to a particular hospital.

        During one three-hour stretch Monday afternoon, five hospitals were diverting patients at the same time: Bethesda North, Clermont Mercy, Christ, University and Mercy Franciscan-Western Hills.

        At Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the emergency department has been as busy in the past few weeks as it has been in years, said spokesman Jim Feuer. About 350 children a day — compared to 225 on a normal day — are coming in with a variety of viral infections, many of which have led to high fevers, dehydration or pneumonia.

        At TriHealth, which runs Bethesda North and Good Samaritan hospitals, emergency-department activity really started picking up over the weekend, said spokesman Joe Kelley.

        Yet to some health officials, this has been the good news. Imagine if actual influenza were striking at peak levels.

        “From my perspective, so far, so good,” said Dr. Judith Daniels, medical director of the Cincinnati Health Department.

        Much like last year, public health experts have been worried all winter that an intense flu season could overwhelm already-stretched hospital services. Yet deep into the flu season, which runs from December through March, very few cases of influenza have been confirmed, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

        Influenza is a virus-caused upper respiratory infection that typically kills about 20,000 Americans a year, especially the elderly. People who suffer real flu often say it feels like they were hit by a truck because the fever, aches and fatigue is so intense.

        As of Tuesday, the Ohio Department of Health had reported 15 lab-confirmed cases of influenza, none of which involved people in Cincinnati. For now, the state reports only “regional” flu activity, rather than “widespread” activity, a term that meanscases have been been confirmed in areas that comprise at least half the state population.

        Despite those figures, at least some cases of influenza have occurred in Cincinnati and numbers appear to be growing. For example, the state has not yet counted seven influenza cases confirmed at Children's Hospital since Jan. 1, six of which happened after Jan. 23, Mr. Feuer said.

        Instead of influenza, many Tristate residents have been coughing and sneezing their way through a variety of common viruses and bacterial infections that can result in anything from strep throat to pneumonia. In the vast majority of cases, doctors treat the symptoms without testing to pin down the exact bugs involved.

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