Clinics Keep Busy as Flu Bug Spreads

Medical clinics throughout Ventura County are filling up with people wheezing, aching and burning with fever as the county’s flu season kicks into high gear.

Dr. Ted Kleiman, who supervises pediatric units in six clinics run by Buenaventura Medical Clinic Inc., said he has been seeing patients with flu-like symptoms since the beginning of the month. But their numbers began swelling last week, he said.

“It’s been an overwhelming amount of influenza,” Kleiman said.

Although public health officials are predicting an epidemic of the A/Beijing strain of influenza, that particular virus is not what he has been seeing, Kleiman said.

Most patients show up with a fever and a hacking cough and suffer body aches that last three to 10 days, he said. The Beijing flu strain causes more severe symptoms and can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia, Kleiman said.

At the County Medical Center and its seven outlying clinics, doctors have been treating about 150 patients a week for acute symptoms of influenza, said Patricia Rumpza, a hospital spokeswoman.

At the Simi Valley clinic, about three patients out of 30 examined each day are suffering from the flu, Dr. Jack Adelman said.

Adelman and other physicians recommend that healthy adults make sure they get plenty of rest and fluids, and take acetaminophen (Tylenol) for fever, if they come down with the flu. The elderly and very young babies, however, are susceptible to complications, and often need medical supervision, Adelman said.

Ventura County Public Health Services encourages residents 55 and older and people with chronic health conditions that put them at risk for influenza complications to get low-cost influenza immunizations.

Immunizations are available for those eligible without appointments at the following times and locations: 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Ventura Public Health Clinic, 3147 Loma Vista Road, Ventura, or until 5 p.m. at Simi Public Health Center, 2003 Royal Ave., Simi Valley. The fee is $2 or free with a Medi-Cal sticker. For more information, call 652-5918.