Flu Season

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that flu cases have begun to creep up in February, making it one of the latest starts to the influenza season in almost three decades. There are a few flu strains circulating, including H1N1, but they match those chosen for inclusion in this year's vaccine. Officials at the CDC and at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene still strongly recommend that people get vaccinated if they haven't already.

A Baltimore area child who died in December has tested positive for influenza, state health officials announced Friday, declaring it the first pediatric flu death in Maryland this winter. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene declined to release any other details about the case, beyond saying that influenza was confirmed through laboratory tests, and that the child had an underlying health condition. This is the first influenza-associated death of a Maryland child since the 2009-2010 flu season, according to the department, when two youths died.

It's nearly spring, temperatures in the 70s, yet the flu waited until now to ramp up in Maryland, killing three members of a Calvert County family. Usually, flu season strikes earlier. By this time last year, the flu had been widespread and had already officially killed 34 people. The year before, the H1N1 pandemic disproportionately sickened children and triggered a scramble for vaccine. Public health officials say this is the nature of influenza. "Unlike other respiratory viruses, flu is a little more unpredictable," said Dr. Trish M. Perl, professor of medicine, pathology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University and the senior epidemiologist for the Hopkins Health System.

Every flu season, doctors instruct their patients in the basics of respiratory etiquette: To limit spread of the disease, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough and practice good hygiene. The practices are based on the belief that the flu and other viruses pass from person to person through indirect or direct contact. Somebody coughs in another's face, or an infected person touches a doorknob that dozens of others then grab, and the disease spreads. But what if the flu isn't transmitted by direct or indirect contact?

Maryland is moving into flu season, but unlike last year, when the H1N1 flu pandemic triggered a scramble for vaccine, public health officials say there is plenty to go around. And that's important because for the first time the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months and older get a flu vaccination — not just vulnerable groups. A CDC advisory committee made the universal call after last-year's late-breaking H1N1 pandemic disproportionately hit young people who were not in a high-risk category.

The 2008-2009 influenza season is not quite over, but Maryland health officials say it appears to have peaked and the number of new cases is on the wane. "We expect lower levels of flu throughout the rest of the month of April, but it should finally be over by the beginning of May," said Rene Najera, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This flu season has been milder than last year's, Najera said, and he credits the design of this year's vaccine. "The vaccine strains were a better match" for the viruses actually circulating for most of this season, he said.

An outbreak of the flu has young and old across the county snifflingand wheezing, coughing and sneezing.Growing numbers have come down with upper respiratory and stomach infections in the past week, county health officials and hospitals reported.Emergency rooms were crowded over the weekend with people seekingtreatment for fevers, coughs, diarrhea and other flulike symptoms. More than 70 patients were treated for minor complaints at North Arundel Hospital on Saturday and Sunday. Another 10 arrived at the emergency room in Glen Burnie yesterday morning, hospital spokesman Kevin Murnane said.

Sniffle.Cough.Sneeze.Pass the tissues, please. The cold and flu season is upon us. And catching either illness is the last thing we need when there's so much to do. When we show up at work, everyone gives us the "you better-not-spread-whatever-you-have" look. When our kids show up sick at school or at the day-care center, they sometimes pass on their germs to others -- including their teachers.It's miserable.How can we avoid catching the cold or the flu? Dr. Gerald Wagner, a deputy health officer and medical director of an immunization program in California, offers information:What's the difference between a cold and a flu?

WASHINGTON - Hospital emergency rooms, doctors' offices and the nation's sinuses have been less congested this winter, the mildest flu season in at least six years. The 2000-2001 flu season, which began in October with vaccine shortages and rationing of flu shots, has turned out to be one of the least severe in recent memory for deaths, contagion and other effects on health, said Keiji Fukuda, chief of influenza epidemiology at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

For two area health companies, flu season is nothing to sneeze at. Passport Health, with national headquarters in Baltimore and nine offices in the area, does travel immunizations all year long. But in fall flu season, flu shots - generally at line-'em-up clinics sponsored by employers - make up 70 percent of Passport's business, according to Fran Lessans, the company's president and founder. Passport ordered 100,000 doses of flu vaccine in February - 15,000 for the Baltimore area, the rest for its nearly 40 national franchisees - to be ready for the season.

It's flu season in Baltimore. A few days after Christmas, Baltimore resident Kathleen Dudley began experiencing telltale signs of the flu - fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, cough and overall exhaustion. "The worst part - the fever and chills - lasted for about 24 hours," she says. "But the fatigue and cold symptoms lasted much longer. " According to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, between Oct. 1 and Jan. 5, 6,273 Marylanders tested positive for influenza; nearly 30 percent of those positive tests occurred during the week ending Jan. 5. "According to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]

Federal health officials declared this season's flu outbreak an epidemic Friday as Maryland hospitals and clinics continued to treat unusually high numbers of patients for the virus and manufacturers reported low supplies of the vaccine to treat the illness. The Centers for Disease Control said the virus is widespread in Maryland and 46 other states - the worst flu season in a decade. More than 15,000 Marylanders have visited emergency rooms and doctors' offices with flu-like symptoms this season, according to numbers updated Friday by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

It inevitably happens to people every flu season - they obediently get a flu shot only to catch the virus anyway. But don't blame the flu shot. Despite what many people believe, the flu shot doesn't cause the flu. The influenza viruses in the shot are dead and can't cause infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control. So why do people still get sick even after getting the shot? One explanation is they could have a different strain of the virus than the one the vaccine will fend off. Drug makers create each season's vaccine based on which strain they think will be prominent.

Area hospitals are coping with a surge of patients with achy bodies, fevers and sore throats as the nation grapples with a flu season that has hit earlier and harder than usual. The flu virus is unpredictable, so no one knows when the outbreak will peak or how bad the season will be, but a doctor said the pieces are in place to potentially make it one of the worst influenza seasons in recent years. The principal strain infecting people this year is one generally associated with more severe symptoms, said Dr. Andrea Dugas, an emergency room physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital who is leading research on the flu virus.

It's nearly spring, temperatures in the 70s, yet the flu waited until now to ramp up in Maryland, killing three members of a Calvert County family. Usually, flu season strikes earlier. By this time last year, the flu had been widespread and had already officially killed 34 people. The year before, the H1N1 pandemic disproportionately sickened children and triggered a scramble for vaccine. Public health officials say this is the nature of influenza. "Unlike other respiratory viruses, flu is a little more unpredictable," said Dr. Trish M. Perl, professor of medicine, pathology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University and the senior epidemiologist for the Hopkins Health System.

State health officials say today that lab tests confirm all four members of a Calvert County family striken with a severe respiratory illness in recent weeks had the H3N2 strain of influenza A, a strain of the flu that has been going around this season. Three have since died. At least two of the cases were complicated by bacterial infections with methicillin-resistent Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, according to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene . Additional lab testing and investigation continue, but the health officials said there still have been no other clusters of severe respiratory illness in the state discovered.

Though it will come as small comfort to anyone who is coughing, wheezing and sweating out a fever, health officials say the flu season of 1997-1998 is not shaping up to be a severe one.For those with ailing children parked in front of television sets, this winter may seem one of the worst in memory. But doctors and epidemiologists who track disease trends say the flu season has been about average and far less severe than last year's."It hasn't been terrible, not anything like last year, which hit early, hit real hard and then was gone," said Dale Rohn, chief of communicable disease surveillance for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Despite delays and price gouging in the distribution of flu vaccines this fall, Maryland health officials said yesterday that they now have enough for all state residents and urged everyone to get the shots. The extra supply came just in time for the flu season. Yesterday, the state reported the season's first confirmed cases of the virus in a 10-year-old Baltimore girl and a 59-year-old Prince George's County woman, both of whom are in good condition. "People who may have been discouraged from getting their flu vaccinations earlier this season because of distribution problems, we are now encouraging them to come in and get their shots," Dr. Georges Benjamin, the state's health secretary, said at a news conference.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that flu cases have begun to creep up in February, making it one of the latest starts to the influenza season in almost three decades. There are a few flu strains circulating, including H1N1, but they match those chosen for inclusion in this year's vaccine. Officials at the CDC and at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene still strongly recommend that people get vaccinated if they haven't already.

Maryland hospitals have become more aggressive in recent years about vaccinating workers for the flu, but public health officials are pushing for even stricter programs to halt the spread of a virus that kills thousands each year. As manufacturers have begun shipping vaccine for the 2011-2012 flu season and vaccination programs are being planned, some officials are pushing hospitals to make vaccinations mandatory for employees. They say the vaccine is the most effective means of protecting workers and adds a crucial layer of safety for highly vulnerable patients such as newborns, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.