Federal health officials say the nation is winding down one of its worst years for influenza, thanks in part to a poorly matched vaccine, but residents of Seattle and King County appear to have suffered through only a typical flu season.
"Flu is still around, but it's definitely on the decline," said Matias Valenzuela, a spokesman for Public Health -- Seattle & King County. "It's been a pretty routine year here as compared to other parts of the country."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday issued its regular weekly morbidity and mortality report highlighting nationwide flu statistics. Among the federal agency's findings was an acknowledgement that the vaccine prepared in anticipation of this year's flu season was very poorly matched to the dominant strains of the virus.
"We had a less than optimal match," said Dr. Dan Jernigan, a flu expert with the Atlanta-based CDC. Based on a sampling done in Wisconsin, public health officials said people who received this year's flu vaccine were only 44 percent less likely to get the flu as compared with the typical 70 percent protection from seasonal immunization.
Because the flu virus comes in a variety of strains and mutates rapidly, it is always a bit of a guessing game for officials to decide which of three strains to include in the vaccine. The flu vaccine continues to be made by growing the virus in chicken eggs, an old, cumbersome and time-consuming laboratory process.
CDC officials also reported that some cases of flu were resistant to Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug that King County officials and other government agencies have spent millions of dollars on to stockpile in the case of a flu pandemic. Flu infects 5 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population on any given year and kills an average of 36,000 people nationwide.
Valenzuela said it's not clear why the Seattle and King County area has had a relatively typical flu season as compared with the rest of the country, especially since the vaccine also poorly matched with the predominant flu strains circulating in this region.
"But there are always regional differences in the way flu plays out every year," he said. "One thing we can always say is that influenza season is unpredictable."
To see more of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for online features, or to subscribe, go to http://seattlep-I.com.
??? 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All Rights Reserved.