Good News: Flu Season Seems to Be Tailing Off

It may be small comfort for those still suffering from sore throats and achy muscles, but county health authorities says this winter’s flu outbreak seems to have peaked without reaching epidemic proportions.

“It looks like it’s beginning to taper off a little bit,” said Dr. Donald Ramras of the Department of Health Services. “That doesn’t mean people aren’t sick. But we haven’t reached what the Centers for Disease Control calls an outbreak level, and it looks like we won’t reach it this winter.”

Nevertheless, staff members at local hospitals, nursing homes and schools said Thursday that they had seen an unusually large number of flu cases this year.

“There did seem to be more people sick than other years, and the symptoms seemed more severe,” said Winn Hoy, assistant administrator at Cloisters of La Jolla, a convalescent hospital.

Half of Staff Stricken

Hoy said about half of the hospital’s 57 patients and most of its staff have come down with the virus so far this winter.

“It’s been a heavy season; all of our offices are quite busy,” said Dr. Henry Golembesky, medical director at the Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group in downtown San Diego. “We’ve been seeing more cases than usual, certainly more than last year. Some of our patients are fairly sick with it and taking quite a while to get back to work or school.”

Though patients often confuse it with the common cold, doctors say that influenza is more serious.

“A lot of people call diarrhea flu and runny noses flu, but those are caused by other kinds of viruses,” said Dr. William Norcross, an associate clinical professor of family medicine at UC San Diego who also has a family practice. “When people have colds, they usually go to work and take some decongestants and they do OK. With the flu, you’re usually flat on your back.”

The common symptoms of influenza, a virus that causes respiratory infection, are coughing, fever, muscle aches and fatigue. In general, young children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases suffer the most from the flu, and physicians recommend that those people get flu vaccinations every year.

Physicians say that aspirin can be used by adults to bring down fever and ease aches but that it should not be given to children and teen-agers. Doctors have found that, among youngsters, there is a relationship between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome, a sudden inflammation of the brain and liver that can be fatal.

“Kids can go into a coma and even die,” Golembesky said. “Aspirin doesn’t necessarily cause it, but there seems to be a connection.”

Doctors recommend that children be given acetaminophen, an aspirin substitute, instead. Tylenol is a well-known brand of acetaminophen.

Area doctors said they have been teased about advising their patients to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids, but they agree that that is the most effective flu remedy.

“People make a joke out of it, but in fact, that really is the best thing to do,” Norcross said, adding that too many flu patients drag themselves to the office while they’re sick, which results in lengthening their own illnesses and spreading the highly contagious virus to co-workers.

“We have to start saying, ‘Life is short. I’m going to stay home and watch silly game shows on TV and drink hot tea and let the office manage without me,’ ” Norcross said.

Connie Frakes, director of nursing at Mission Convalescent Hospital, said she attributed the low incidence of flu among the hospital’s 93 patients this winter to the fact that staff members with flu symptoms have been encouraged to stay home.

“We only had two or three cases in November, and I know it’s due to not letting the staff come in when they’re coming down with it,” Frakes said.

Most people recover from the flu in five to 10 days, but sometimes symptoms can drag on for weeks.

“It’s not uncommon for people to come into my office and say, ‘What’s wrong with me? I’ve had this cough for a month now,’ ” Norcross said.

The county does not count the number of influenza cases. To monitor the severity of flu bouts, the health department tracks the absentee rate at selected schools and the number of patients with respiratory ailments who visit emergency rooms at selected hospitals. When 15% or more of the emergency room visits are for respiratory ailments and the school absentee rate reaches 10% or more two weeks in a row, health officials say the bout has reached a serious or “outbreak” level.

At its highest point, two weeks ago, the respiratory disease rate had reached 15.9% but the absentee rate was only 8%. By last week, the respiratory disease rate had dropped to 13.5%. The absentee rate held at 8% at half the schools polled and had dropped to 5% at the others.

Though there is no scientifically proven relationship between the flu and the weather, the county’s Ramras said that last week’s summery weather might account in part for the drop in the number of cases.

“If you get real wet weather, that seems to help spread the virus,” Ramras said. “More people are jammed together indoors to cough on each other. In sunny weather, they are usually more dispersed and don’t pass it as quickly.”

Norcross agreed.

“There’s a higher incidence of flus and colds in the dead of winter,” Norcross said. “I personally feel I have caught many colds in my life during cold weather, or after getting chilled, just as our mothers told us.”