BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Local health officials are happy this year’s flu season hasn’t been as bad as the previous one – when the arrival of the 2009 H1N1 flu virus, or swine flu, triggered the country’s first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years.
“Last year’s flu season was a whole different ball game,” said Jennifer Williams, the Sullivan County Regional Health Department’s communicable disease director. “You can’t really look at this year versus last year.”
Five of the 308 patients who visited doctors participating in the county’s sentinel provider network between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29 complained of an influenza-like illness – the fever, chills, body aches and nausea common to people who get sick with the flu – according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
That means the county had an influenza-like illness rate of 1.7 percent that week, which is about half Tennessee’s statewide ILI rate of 4.24 percent. The state had an ILI rate of 3.63 percent between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22, according to the department’s figures, while the county’s was 0.7 percent.
Williams said she expects the county’s ILI rate to climb over the next few weeks as the traditional peak to its flu season steadily approaches. The last flu season peaked in August 2009 when the state’s ILI rates were hovering around the 5 percent mark and tens of thousands of people had the flu.
“Everything about the last flu season was strange,” said Bobby Parker, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Health. “We had a relatively unique situation where we had a new strain of virus that had no known forms of protection.”
Parker said the country’s ability to find vaccine for the H1N1 virus and include it in this year’s standard flu vaccine might be one reason this year’s flu season has been completely different than last year’s flu season. But he’s not exactly sure because the flu and the severity of its outbreaks changes each year.
Patients with an influenza-like illness account for only 4 percent of Southwest Virginia’s total patient visits right now, Parker said, adding that they range from 2 percent to 7 percent of the total patient visits in other parts of the state.
“So far, it’s been a fairly typical flu season,” Parker said, adding that even though this year’s flu season has proven to be a normal one, people should still get a flu shot if they haven’t already.
(276) 645-2518
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement