Flu and Fear

[Guest guest]

Now this article is very interesting.

A great exercise in spotting "Out-Points".

Time to stock up on the Echinacea and Total Tonic Folks ;o)

And watch out for toooooo much indulgence of the wrong kind of foods LOL.

Love,

Doc

 

Ian "Doc" Shillington N.D.505-772-5889Dr.IanShillington

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=676 & e=5 & u=/usatoday/20031210/ts_usatoday/12063674

 

Flu, and fear, run rampant

 

 

 

 

 

Wed Dec 10, 6:42 AM ET

 

 

 

 

 

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By Anita Manning and Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY Emergency rooms are jammed with sick people. Supplies of flu vaccine and medications are spotty. Health officials say outbreaks are in nursing homes, colleges and military barracks. The number of deaths has not reached official "epidemic" levels, but doctors in Albuquerque, Denver and Houston are saying the same thing about this year's flu season: They've never seen it so bad.

After several mild flu seasons that went by largely unnoticed, this year's season is a top topic of conversation among concerned Americans:

• The virus hit hard about a month earlier than expected, mainly in the West. Federal health officials say at least 20 children have died of flu in several states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. "We're seeing record numbers of patients with flu," says Denver emergency doctor Dennis Beck, including an alarming number of children, "many of whom are quite ill."

 

• The vaccine is hard to find in some areas because the demand has been unexpectedly high. Manufacturers are sold out, and federal health officials announced Tuesday that they are considering buying extra vaccine from other sources. And some people who were vaccinated are getting the flu anyway because this year's vaccine is not a perfect match for the virus that is causing most of the cases.

 

• No one can predict how long the flu season will last or whether it will get worse before it gets better. Health officials say they don't know yet whether this year will turn out to be worse than average for children or the elderly, two groups at highest risk for serious illness.

 

Flu usually peaks in late December or January; this year, emergency rooms were overwhelmed with patients by Thanksgiving. But for all anyone knows, it could be over soon, says Keiji Fukuda of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites)'s influenza branch.

 

"It's possible we will have an earlier end to the season," Fukuda says. "It's also possible the current viruses predominating in the country will be replaced" by other strains."

 

The World Health Organization (news - web sites) says flu seems to have peaked in Canada and the United Kingdom but is still raging in France, Norway, Spain, Portugal and the USA.

 

Flu was widespread in 13 states at the end of November, and that number is expected to rise.

 

"We broke records in my emergency department" over Thanksgiving weekend, says physician George Molzen of Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. Every hospital in the city was overwhelmed, he says, yet ambulances just kept coming. "It really almost put the whole system in gridlock. It's still going just gangbusters."

 

Tough year for children

 

Scott Harper of the CDC's Influenza Branch says health experts are monitoring reports of dangerous flu complications in children, including bacterial pneumonia caused by a drug-resistant strain of staphylococcus aureus, flu-related encephalitis and sudden death. "We're very concerned about it," Harper says.

 

Flu typically kills 36,000 people every year, most of them elderly. "We've known influenza causes death in kids," Harper says. "The question is: Are we seeing more of it or more reporting about it?"

 

It is difficult to know, because most states don't count individual flu cases.

 

"We have heard about over 20 deaths in kids in the USA this year," Harper says. "But we can't say if that's higher or lower than previous years. It may be that people are testing for it" more this year.

 

Children at highest risk are those with health problems, such as asthma or diabetes, but even previously healthy children can be suddenly overcome. Children ages 6 months to 2 years are as likely to be hospitalized for flu as elderly people are.

 

Robert Suter, an emergency room doctor at Houston's Spring Branch Medical Center and president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians (news - web sites), says flu has been "particularly severe in the preschool, day care population. We probably saw 1,000 pediatric cases of flu in the past eight weeks. We're now starting to see the adult cases pick up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At The Children's Hospital in Denver, "November was the busiest month in the history of the emergency room," says Mark Roback, an emergency room doctor. "I've been here nine years, and it's the worst I've seen." December has brought no letup, he says: "It's been standing room only."

Colorado hit hard

Twenty-month-old Keegan Stobbe, son of Kai and Dianne Stobbe of Firestone, Colo., was among a long line of patients flooding the hospital since last month. His illness started with trouble sleeping and a high fever, followed by a raspy cough and breathing problems.

His father, a physician's assistant, suspected flu and brought him to Children's right away. "I'm not willing to take a chance with my kid," Stobbe says. Keegan is home, "still peaked" but doing better, his father said Tuesday.

Since the outbreak began, 1,200 infants and children have tested positive for flu at Children's, and many more have come in with flu symptoms who didn't get tested.

For the first time, the hospital is asking parents not to bring children under 12 to visit patients. At times, security personnel have had to help out with crowd control in the emergency room waiting area.

Parents across the country, hearing reports of healthy children dying just days after being stricken with flu, are frightened and helping fuel a run on flu vaccine.

Manufacturers shipped 83 million doses and can't make more in time for this flu season. Flu vaccine shortages in previous years have been caused by manufacturing delays, but this year's shortage appears to be prompted by flu's early and deadly arrival.

CDC Director Julie Gerberding said Tuesday in a briefing that the agency is investigating the possibility of buying about half a million doses of flu vaccine from the British plant of U.S.-based Chiron. The Chiron doses, intended for the European market, need government approval to be used here.

In addition, the CDC last week asked Aventis, which makes more than half of the U.S. flu vaccine supply, to put 250,000 doses in reserve. Aventis spokesman Len Lavenda says the reserve, which includes 150,000 doses of pediatric flu vaccine, will go to state health departments where the need is greatest. The company is not filling any more orders beyond what it has in reserve for the CDC.

The shortage has led to discussions about how the government can assure adequate supplies in the future, either by guaranteeing payment to manufacturers for unused vaccine or buying more doses. Last year, she says, manufacturers had to dump 12 million unsold doses.

Meanwhile, state health departments are urging doctors to give vaccine priority to those at greatest risk of serious illness: the elderly, anyone with chronic illnesses, and babies 6 to 23 months old.

Vaccines are no guarantee

Vaccine is the best protection, experts say, even though this year's formulation is not a perfect match for the bug that is causing so much havoc. Flu vaccines are made each year, designed to protect against the strains of virus that are in circulation. But they take at least four months to make, and decisions about what will be in them are made months ahead of the season.

This year's flu shots contain two type A strains and one B strain, but what is causing most of the illness is A/Fujian, which is close to one of the vaccine strains but not quite the same. This mismatch raises the possibility of more vaccine failures than in previous years. It's like donning a bulletproof vest that has holes in it.

"I'm seeing people who got the flu shot and have classic flu," Molzen says. "You hope cases are milder, but I'm seeing people in their 60s or 70s who feel real bad."

In Denver, Beck says, "between 10% and 30% of the patients we're seeing have had the flu shot."

A new form of flu vaccine, FluMist nasal spray, may be easier to obtain, though it's more expensive and may not be covered by insurance.

FluMist costs doctors $46 a dose, compared to $8 to $12 for the injected vaccine. The mist contains live, weakened virus, and new studies suggest it might offer immunity against the Fujian flu variation, company officials say.

The spray, which is licensed only for healthy people ages 5 to 49, "is an excellent vaccine," Fukuda says, and "is definitely an option for any parent to consider."

The staff at Children's Hospital of Denver is taking few chances. In a normal year, about 1,800 employees might receive flu vaccine. This year, more than 2,600 did.

"We really pushed the vaccine to protect the staff," says Chris Nyquist, an infection-control specialist. Other precautions nurses, doctors and others include wearing masks and goggles in the emergency room, and being scrupulous about frequent hand washing.

"It's a preventable disease with vaccination programs and good hand washing and other protection," she says. It's also good training for dealing with possible future infectious disease outbreaks like SARS (news - web sites), Nyquist says. "It's good preparation for the nation."