Latest Flu News Will Just Make You Sick

Aches, fevers, chills? You’re not alone.

All across the country, people have taken to their beds with flu-like ailments.

“We are inundated with people with cold symptoms, coughing, wheezing, muscle aches, low-grade fevers, feeling like you-know-what,” said Dr. Irving Danesh, an emergency room physician at Lawrence General Hospital north of Boston.

So far this season, 34 states have confirmed at least one case of influenza, and that’s not the only bug making people feel lousy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The number of sufferers is soaring each week, and in two of those states--Colorado and Pennsylvania--the outbreaks are considered widespread, the Atlanta-based CDC said.

Peak flu season runs from December to March, but many doctors said it’s unusually early to see so many people feeling so sick.

*

Schools in several states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio, have had to shut their doors for a few days because so many students and teachers were absent.

Doctors and hospitals don’t have to report influenza cases to health officials, so it’s difficult to pinpoint how many people have been sidelined by the disease, experts said.

But CDC and state health departments do ask some clinics and laboratories to provide influenza test results in order to gauge the severity of the virus.

In spite of the name, it’s not all flu.

In Massachusetts, for example, only nine of 68 tests submitted to the Department of Public Health this season tested positive for influenza.

The rest of the tests found flu-like viruses--similar symptoms but different diseases, things like viral pneumonia and rhinoviruses.

*

So here’s the bad news: If you got a flu shot this year, it won’t protect you from any number of viruses that cause nausea, fevers, headaches and an overall lousy feeling.

Here’s some worse news: If you already had what you thought was the flu, you could still come down with another strain later this season.

The only good news is that it’s not too late to get a flu shot, doctors said.

Some emergency room physicians are seeing record numbers of patients--mostly attributable to flu and those flu-like bugs.

At the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester this week, patients were forced to sit in wheelchairs and stretchers in the hallways while they were treated with intravenous fluids, said Dr. Laura Peterson, the attending emergency room physician.

Many hospitals said they increased their staffs to handle the extra traffic, and doctors and nurses are working overtime.

Most people who turn up at emergency rooms are treated with fluids, Tylenol and cough medicine and sent home to rest.

The flu can be dangerous for the very young, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions.