Swine flu came in like a lion but seems to be going out like a lamb. And the regular flu season never even got started.
After scaring the bejeebers out of us last spring and fall, the H1N1 virus seems to have collapsed by the end of the year. This year, there haven't been any H1N1 deaths in Miami-Dade and Broward, and just six in all of Florida.
Even better, for reasons scientists can't explain, swine flu tended to squeeze out regular seasonal flu. Of all U.S. patients hospitalized for flu this season, 99.4 percent had H1N1, not seasonal flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
``We're almost at the end of the flu season. It could be a very mild one,'' said Dr. Vincent Conte, chief epidemiologist for the Miami-Dade Health Department. ``Even seasonal flu cases are few and far between.''
Broward has seen ``no outbreaks, no hospitalizations since the first of January,'' said Dr. John Livengood, epidemiologist with the Broward Health Department.
And regular seasonal flu? ``Haven't seen any. Not a single one.''
