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U.S. NEWS Saturday 3 February 2018

Groundhog Day report: Flu’s worsening shadow blanketing U.S.

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — It looks
like Groundhog Day for the
nation’s flu report, too: It’s
gotten worse and there are
weeks of suffering ahead.
The government’s report
out Friday showed the flu
season continued to inten-
sify last week.
One of every 14 visits to
doctors and clinics were
for fever, cough and other
symptoms of the flu. That’s
the highest level since the
swine flu pandemic in 2009.
Last week, 42 states report-
ed high patient traffic for
the flu, up from 39.
Hospital stays because of
the flu also increased.
Experts had thought this
season might be bad, but
its intensity has surprised
most everyone.
“It’s been the busiest I can
remember for a long time,”
said Dr. Doug Olson, an ER
doctor at Northside Hos- Dr. Doug Olson asks patient William Ness, 70, how he is feeling after his wife drove him to the emergency room and he was
pital Forsyth, in Cumming, diagnosed with flu at Northside Hospital Emergency Room in Cumming, Ga., Monday, Jan. 29, 2018.
Georgia. Another hospi- Associated Press
tal in the Atlanta area this are as many as 56,000 season,” said the CDC’s Dr. figures in the U.S. may end she was no longer around
week set up a mobile ER deaths connected to the Dan Jernigan. up in the same range. sick children. This week she
outside to handle flu cases. flu during a bad year. Some good news: Illnesses Some researchers say part had a 101 temperature
The heavy flu season has The flu usually peaks in seem to be easing a bit on of the problem may be and was diagnosed with
also put a strain in places February. This season had the West Coast. Oregon that most flu vaccine is the flu.
on some medical supplies, an early start, and health joined Hawaii last week made by growing viruses “I’m feeling kind of foolish,”
including IV bags, and flu officials initially thought it as the only states where in chicken eggs; the viruses said Dreifuss, of Bynum,
medicine. would also have an early flu wasn’t widespread. Fri- can mutate in the eggs, North Carolina.
The Centers for Disease peak. But so far it hasn’t day’s report covers the making the vaccine less ef- In Pensacola, Florida, an
Control and Prevention worked out that way. week ending Jan. 27. fective in people. ER nurse’s Facebook rant
tally shows hospitalization And there are some signs In the U.S., annual flu shots The cold winter in many after a 12-hour shift got at-
rates surged to surpass the the flu season will con- are recommended for ev- parts of the country may tention this week, with her
nasty season of the win- tinue to get worse. The eryone age 6 months or also have played a role, venting about people not
ter of 2014-2015, when the CDC’s forecast though older. This season’s vac- keeping people indoors doing enough to stop the
vaccine was a poor match wasn’t quite as precise as cine targets the strains that and helping flu bugs to spread of germs. She dem-
to the main bug. Punxsutawney Phil’s; the are making Americans sick, spread, said Dr. David We- onstrates the “magic trick”
So far, however, deaths this groundhog “predicted” six including the key H3N2 ber, a University of North of sneezing or coughing
season from the flu and flu- more weeks of winter on virus. How well it worked Carolina flu expert. into the crook of an arm.
related pneumonia have Friday. won’t be known until later Whatever the reason, “it’s She also complains about
lagged a little behind some As for the flu: “There may this month. An early report a whopper of a flu season,” people without true emer-
recent bad seasons. There be many weeks left for this from Canada for the same said Mimi Dreifuss, a North gencies crowding into
flu shot shows protection Carolina nurse who got sick waiting rooms, next to peo-
against that bug has been this week. ple with the flu.
poor, just 17 percent. Dreifuss, 61, worked in a pe- “So guess what? Five flus
Canada’s flu season so far diatrician’s office for years came in, 15 flus walk out.
has been milder with more and didn’t catch the flu. It’s great,” says Kather-
of a mix of strains. But CDC She retired last year and ine Lockler. “They’ll be
officials said effectiveness didn’t get a flu shot figuring back.”q