Report offers snapshot of infectious disease in Delaware County

DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH) — The Delaware Public Health District released its annual infectious disease report and it showed how bad last year’s flu season was.

“It really is to inform the community about what’s happening locally,” Delaware Public Health District Deputy Health Commissioner Adam Howard said. “Using that information, they can then take that and use precautions to protect themselves and their family.”

The 22-page document outlines all the different types of diseases people in the area dealt with in 2025 and how many residents had them. The top five reported diseases were chlamydia, flu-related hospitalizations, gonorrhea, campylobacteriosis, and salmonellosis, according to DPHD. 

“As far as the health district goes, our role in all this is to provide the information to try and help people who are sick and try and find where things are spreading and try to help stop the spread,” Howard said.

Howard said the flu numbers and hospitalizations also stand out to him.

“We did have a higher flu hospitalization rate last year and that is really predominantly based on the fact that the 2024 to 2025 flu season was a severe season,” he said. “That’s what it was both here locally and nationally.”

DPHD reported 151 flu hospitalizations in 2025, according to the report. Page six compares case numbers over the last five years. Part of that page looks at vaccine-preventable and invasive bacterial diseases. “Notably, these cases have increased significantly since 2023, rising from 73 reported cases in 2023 to 235 in 2025,” the report said.

“The spike is predominantly based on the flu hospitalizations,” Howard said. “If you look at flu hospitalizations, they tripled last year, and that is really due to the severity of the flu season last year. Those numbers are much lower this year than they were last year so that’s a good thing. But it also shows the importance of getting vaccinated for things like flu.”