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UR Medicine Hospitals including Strong, begin visitor restrictions due to flu

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As the number of flu cases rise across the country, at least one local hospital system will begin visitor restrictions to try to limit its spread.

Officials at UR Medicine said these restrictions will be in place at Strong Memorial, Highland, Golisano Children’s Hospital and the Wilmot Cancer Center as of Noon on Wednesday.

"Our nurses in particular pay attention to who is visiting and the numbers visiting so we can kind of keep tabs on what’s going on with our visitors," said Dr. Paul Graman, hospital epidemiologist at Strong, "But we’re not doing physical exams and taking histories from everyone who walks in the door."

No visitors under the age of 14 are permitted in the hospital. Exception: In the Maternity units only, healthy siblings of any age are permitted to visit healthy newborns.

No more than two visitors plus one care giver at any time for each patient.

People who are ill with flu-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, body aches) are asked not to visit hospitalized patients at all.

Graman said in recent weeks, the hospitals have seen 40 to 50 or more cases of influenza, and that the majority are adult patients being seen in doctor's offices. 

"We have currently about 10 patients in the hospital with the flu and we have had about 20 patients sick enough to be admitted to the hospital since Jan. 1," Graman said.

He said the hospital typically lifts the yearly flu restriction after several weeks, possibly as long as two months.

Through the first week of 2017, there were 285 lab confirmed cases of influenza with 102 hospitalizations in Monroe County. A spokesperson for the county's health department said the actual number is likely much higher because not all sick people visit a doctor.

WXXI News also reached out to the Rochester Regional Health System for an update. As of Wednesday,  there are no visitor restrictions at any of those hospitals, however a spokesperson said that could change at any moment.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.
Sasha-Ann Simons joined the team at WXXI News in 2015 as a Multimedia Reporter/Producer. She tells stories about the innovation economy and technology in upstate New York and also does general assignment reporting. Sasha-Ann is the host of Arts InFocus, WXXI-TV's weekly arts and culture program. She is also a fill-in host and regular contributor to Need To Know.