Most Clinics Report Severe Flu Season

Influenza and upper-respiratory infections have hit thousands of Ventura County residents, medical officials say, causing long waits in some doctors’ offices and drawing more patients than usual to emergency rooms.

“It has been a terrible season,” said Wendy Beasley, a nurse with Ventura Urgent Care. “It has been so bad that people just walk in and sometimes wait about three hours to see a doctor.”

Dr. Russell Spadaro with North Oaks Pediatrics in Thousand Oaks said this winter may bring one of the worst flu seasons in memory.

“Every day we are seeing hundreds of children with the flu,” he said. “I would say the number of children coming in every day is about five times more than we had last year at this time.”

Some of the most common symptoms include scratchy throat, dry cough, splitting headache, upset stomach and a fever that lasts three to five days, Spadaro said.

Although most sufferers have the flu, several have suffered upper-respiratory infections that produce flu-like symptoms and are more acute, said Carol Dimse, a registered nurse and assistant executive director at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

Some of the more severe conditions include pneumonia, sinus infection and bronchitis, Dimse said. Many doctors’ offices, hospitals and businesses set up special clinics this fall to offer low-cost or free flu vaccines, but those have long since closed.

Emergency room staff at Community Memorial say that each day, 15 to 20 more people with the flu are coming in than earlier in December.

“We don’t know whether it’s more than what we had last year, but it seems that people feel more icky than they did last year,” Dimse said.

During the last two weeks at Foundation Health in Ventura, four of every five patients have been treated for the flu, said nurse Michele Horwitz.

“Our hands are full,” she said. “It appears that people are sicker than usual, and most of them complain of upper-respiratory symptoms.”

At Clinicas del Camino Real in Oxnard, physicians and nurses have accommodated a frenzy of patients coming in with severe fevers and coughs.

“It’s a madhouse because we are having about 40% more flu patients than last year,” said Jose Carlos Gutierrez, manager of the clinic, adding that a large number are children. “They seem to be more likely to catch the flu.”

But not all those they see with the flu bug are county residents, said Beasley, of Ventura Urgent Care.

“Most of our patients are children, but over half of them are from out of town who came to spend the holidays with families,” Beasley said.

Despite an apparent dramatic increase in the number of people visiting doctors’ offices, officials at Ventura County Medical Center said they have seen only a slight increase in patients seeking treatment for the flu.

“It seems like in the last 10 days, more people have come to the ER with flu, but it doesn’t seem to be more than last year,” said Ronnalee Riley, an emergency room medical coordinator at the county medical center.

And at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, officials said they have seen 5% to 10% fewer flu cases this year than last.

“The number of flu patients is much lower than last year,” said Kris Carraway, a spokeswoman for Los Robles. “It’s a significant change for us.”