Capital hit by influenza spike

A late spike in influenza cases has put severely-ill Wellingtonians into intensive care, and seen surgeries delayed at Wellington Regional Hospital.

About 120 patients with flulike symptoms have presented at Wellington Regional Hospital’s emergency department each of the past three weeks, adding to a significant surge in influenza cases across Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) hospitals.

Wellington Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) was looking after 10 influenza patients on Monday, three of whom were children.

The late-winter surge has caused some disruption. Two surgeries scheduled for Tuesday were postponed due to the unusual number of flu patients requiring intensive care, a CCDHB spokesman said.

Five of the 10 patients in ICU on Monday have since been discharged, including the children.

Hawke’s Bay Hospital saw four patients receive intensive care treatment for the flu in

August. ‘‘In the past few days, we have seen an increase in presentations to the emergency department of people with flu-like illness,’’ a Hawke’s Bay District Health Board spokeswoman said.

‘‘However, none have needed intensive care treatment as of [yesterday].’’

It was not too late to get a flu injection to safeguard against the virus, the spokeswoman said.

Alistair du Chatenier, principal of Thorndon School in Wellington, said 40 of its 300 students were absent due to illness two weeks ago.

‘‘It has come a bit later in the year, I think people thought they had an out-of-jail-free card.’’

Figures from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research show 58 of every 100,000 registered CCDHB patients went to their GPs with an influenzalike illness in the week ending August 26.

That was twice as much as the weekly average across the country’s 20 DHBs of 27.3 per 100,000.

The situation was better in Hawke’s Bay, which recorded 14 influenza-related GP visits, per 100,000, in the same period.

Elsewhere in the region, influenza hasn’t caught on as much. Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs both had zero patients with influenza-like illness.

Auckland had the most cases nationally, recording 110 per 100,000, followed by South Canterbury at 94.