Jan. 12--Hospitals are seeing a dramatic increase in flu cases, including three deaths
in Connecticut.
This season's flu has officially reached the level of an epidemic in the
U.S., federal health officials said Friday, but there's some hope that cases
have peaked.
Deaths from influenza and pneumonia accounted for 7.3 percent of all
deaths in the week ending Jan. 5. The official threshold for an epidemic is
7.2 percent.
Tom Skinner, spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, said "epidemic" is a useful term for researchers, but it sets off
unnecessary alarms in the public. It essentially means that it has exceed the
expected level of deaths, and it's common to exceed that level in any given
flu season.
"Just about every year we exceed our baseline for influenza-like
illnesses," Skinner said.
Other statistics released by the CDC Friday alternately offered hope and
cause for concern. Flu-related hospitalizations were up in the week ending
Jan. 5, but overall visits to the doctor for flu-like symptoms have gone down.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, cautioned against reading too much into
the decreased number of doctor visits because the holiday season can throw
those numbers off track. It will be another week or so before health officials
have a better idea of the flu season's trajectory.
For the week ending Jan. 5, the CDC said, 47 states reported widespread
flu activity, an increase from 41 states the week before. On the bright side,
only 24 states reported high activity of the flu, down from 29 the previous
week.
Here in Connecticut, most indicators suggest that the flu is still on the
rise. By Thursday, there was a total of 1,680 laboratory-confirmed cases of
influenza in Connecticut, an increase of more than 600 cases from the previous
week. Outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms were up this week, as were
hospital admissions for pneumonia. There was a slight dip over the last week
in emergency department visits, although patients with flu-like symptoms made
up 10 percent of all emergency department visits. The peak for the past two
seasons was 8 percent.
This season's vaccine is 62 percent effective, which national health
officials say is about as good as can be expected.
"The flu vaccine is still far from perfect, but it's still the best tool
we have to prevent the flu," said the CDC's Frieden in a telephone press
conference. "We wish we had a vaccine that was long-lasting and universal
against the flu, but that's a long way off."
CDC officials said they have heard reports of vaccine shortages in parts
of the country. State health officials say it's common for the flu vaccine to
be harder to find this late in the season, but that people should be able to
get shots if they look hard enough.
"Finding a flu vaccine this time of year may require patience and
persistence," said William Gerrish, spokesman for the state public health
department. "We encourage the public to contact their health care provider,
pharmacy or local health department to find a flu vaccine in their area."
For assistance in finding a flu-shot provider, go to
http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/influenza and scroll down to
flu-vaccine-finder.
CDC officials say this year's vaccine is a good match for most of the
current flu strains, although it doesn't cover one strain of influenza B
that's been circulating. Frieden said the vaccine's effectiveness, at 62
percent, compares favorably to previous years. Last year's vaccine's
effectiveness was between 50 and 60 percent.
As of the beginning of this month, CDC officials said, 128 million
Americans have been vaccinated for this season's flu, or about 37 percent.
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