A widespread flu outbreak that began in early December is continuing to take its toll across Virginia. There have been three pediatric deaths from the illness, with two of those in the Eastern District, said Dr. Ted Tweel, acting director of the Three Rivers Health District.
Statistics reported on the Virginia Department of Health’s website show that the flu epidemic is still being seen across all areas of the state and that hospital visits for flu-like symptoms were still on the upswing through Jan. 3, the latest date for which data was available.
Tweel said that “we’re in the thick of our influenza year” and that the outbreak can be expected to last at least several more weeks. It’s not too late to be vaccinated against the flu, he said, and he recommended that everyone receive the vaccine. Although it has been reported that the vaccine is not a good match for the most prevalent type of flu being seen this year, he said, many strains of the flu will be responsive to it.
“The flu is not a cold,” said Tweel. “It’s a much more serious disease that can have complications, including death. The best preventative measures are vaccination and personal hygiene.”
Tweel said that data about influenza are collected statewide and show regional trends rather than specific information about individual localities or cases. He said there is no way to filter out the number of cases that occurred specifically in Gloucester and Mathews. Reporting is made by facilities such as hospitals and urgent care clinics, he said, and those facilities don’t report the localities where patients live.
The percentage of hospital and urgent care visits made by people complaining of flu-like symptoms continued to be high for the last reported week, at about 17 percent of all visits in the eastern region of Virginia, according to the VDH website. Most of those hospital visits were by children ages zero to four. The number of children aged 5 to 18 who visited hospitals for flu-like symptoms dropped during the year-end crossover week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, but that age range remained the second highest. The percentage of visits among people between the ages of 19 and 49 dropped, as well, but the percentage of visits among people aged 50 and over increased.
Just as there is no way to determine how many cases of the flu might have occurred locally, Dr. Tweel said there is no way to determine whether there have been any deaths due to the flu in Gloucester and Mathews, since individual records are not public information. Only the deaths of children up to age 18 are reportable, he said, and they would be reported by region rather than by locality.
Andrea Alvarez, program coordinator for the Virginia Department of Health’s Healthcare-Associated Infections/Influenza Program, said that over a period of 30 years between 1976 and 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths nationwide have ranged from a low of about 3,000 people to a high of about 49,000. During a regular flu season, she said, about 90 percent of those deaths occur in people 65 years old and older.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not know exactly how many people die from seasonal flu each year, said Alvarez, adding that there are several reasons for this. In addition to the fact that states are not required to report individual seasonal flu cases or deaths of people older than 18 years of age to CDC, she said, seasonal influenza is seldom listed on death certificates of people who die from flu-related complications. This is because many seasonal flu-related deaths occur one or two weeks after a person’s initial infection, said Alvarez, and that person may have developed a secondary bacterial infection such as bacterial pneumonia, or the flu might have aggravated such chronic illnesses as congestive heart failure or obstructive pulmonary disease.
Finally, said Alvarez, most people who die from seasonal flu-related complications are not tested for flu, or the test provides a false negative result, or they seek medical care a week or more after the onset of their illness, when seasonal influenza can no longer be detected from respiratory samples.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ website flu.gov, a person can avoid contracting the flu by practicing basic hygiene—frequently washing the hands or using alcohol-based hand rub; making an effort not to touch the eyes, nose and mouth; avoiding close contact with sick people, covering the nose and mouth with a tissue to cough or sneeze; following good overall health habits, and staying home if sick. In addition, people should ask their doctors about using antiviral medications if exposed to the flu.
For more information on the flu, Dr. Tweel suggested that residents visit the Virginia Department of Health’s Seasonal Influenza page, www.vdh.virginia.gov/flu.