L.A. County Aching Through Worst Flu Outbreak in Years

The worst outbreak of flu in eight to 10 years is cutting a wide path through Los Angeles County, felling schoolchildren and workers in droves and filling emergency rooms with seriously ill people, doctors and public health officials said Friday.

“We’re seeing tons of flu,” said Dr. Paul Karis, head of the emergency department at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. “It’s a major epidemic in our community.”

“People are not just coming in with coughs or headache or sore throat,” he said. “I have one girl who’s five months’ pregnant and is really dehydrated.”

Physicians said young people seem to be particularly hard-hit this year. Dr. Shirley Fannin, head of communicable disease control for the county health department, said some public schools reported absenteeism rates up to 30% before the Christmas break.

“This is a heavy year, and the heaviest that we’ve had in probably eight to 10 years,” she said.

Fannin said two strains of flu have been isolated locally: influenza A Texas and influenza A Johannesburg, both of which are covered by this year’s vaccines. Neither strain is more virulent than other types of flu, she said, but more people have come down with these strains this year.

Dr. Bill Weinstein, head of the infectious diseases department at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Panorama City, said the hospital added two doctors on the night shift to handle an “overwhelming” number of flu victims.

“We’re seeing a lot of coughs, a lot of fever, a lot of achiness,” he said.