L.A. County’s Flu Season Mild So Far, Doctors Say

Got the chills, a runny nose and sneezing? Chances are you are suffering from a common variety of holidayitis--too much to do in too short a time and susceptibility to every viral bug in the territory.

The good news is that it’s probably not the flu, say medical experts on the lookout for the return of the seasonal disease.

So far, Los Angeles County is “having a very mild flu season,” said Dr. Shirley Fannin, director of disease control for the county Department of Health Services.

But that may change within the next few weeks. The winter flu season runs from November to March, historically peaking at the end of December and in early January. Several physicians say they are seeing an increase in the number of patients with more flu-like symptoms in the Los Angeles area.

“Everybody is sick,” said the office manager for a group of Glendale physicians. “The number of people coming in has doubled this week.”

But Fannin said an apparent high absenteeism among workers may be due in large part to the midweek holiday, coupled with fatigue.

“It’s hard to separate illness-connected and holiday-connected absenteeism,” she said. “Lots of people tend to take the whole week off, which artificially makes it appear that workplaces are stripped.”

While many symptoms of viral illnesses such as the ordinary cold resemble those of the flu, the easiest way to tell the difference is whether you “feel like you’ve been hit by a truck,” Fannin said. “It’s not just sneezels and wheezels.”

Flu symptoms include a fever topping 100 degrees, cough or sore throat, body aches and severe malaise. The disease generally hits hard and fast, with symptoms lasting three days, then recovery takes a week or two, physicians said.

Because the illness is so communicable, health officials advise people to wash their hands often and make sure air ventilation is good.

Forty-five states, including California, have reported confirmed influenza cases, according to national officials.

“In the last month, influenza activity has been increasing throughout the country,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Antibiotics are available for treating some strains of flu, but generally are effective only if administered within the first 48 hours of symptoms’ appearance, and can cause unpleasant side effects, said Dr. David Gordon at Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills. However, he added, “The flu is a serious thing, and I tend to treat it.”

No statistics are kept on the number of flu cases in the county, which can make the extent of the disease hard to track, physicians said. That is because a correct diagnosis must be verified with laboratory analysis, which is expensive and often too slow to be of use in treating an individual. Few doctors call for the tests.

National statistics on the disease are gathered from a core group of about 140 volunteer physicians who report lab-verified findings of influenza among their patients. Among the physicians reporting is Dr. Melvin H. Kirschner of Van Nuys, who said laboratory results are used to develop vaccinations against the ever-changing types of influenza strains.

Incidents of flu in California “have been very mild up until this week,” Kirschner said. But he said he treated two patients with the illness Christmas week and predicts that the flu season is just beginning locally.

Times researcher Stephanie Stassel contributed to this story.