The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
FLU PACKING LESS PUNCH IN REGION
Lake, Geauga counties reporting fewer hospitalized influenza cases than during same period a year ago
“One of the challenges in fighting flu is that the viruses can change their genetic makeup rapidly — not only between flu seasons, but also during the course of a single season." — FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb
Although the 2018-19 flu season is far from over, early reports seem to indicate that influenza is not hitting Lake and Geauga counties as hard as it did during the same stretch last season.
That’s based on the number of hospitalizations for influenza recorded during parts of both flu seasons by the Geauga County Health District and Lake County General Health District.
In Geauga County, two hospitalizations for the flu took place in November and five occurred in December, said Tammy Spencer the county Health District’s emergency response coordinator and public information officer. Those seven hospitalizations represent a significant decline from the 18 during the comparable period in 2017 in Geauga County.
Several factors might be playing a role in the lower number of flu cases requiring hospitalization, Spencer said.
“It could be that the vaccine is a better match this year or it could be that people are doing a better job of trying to stay healthy and have gotten their flu shot this year,” she said.
Meanwhile, The Lake County General Health District recorded five hospitalized influenza cases in December, versus 20 in the same month of 2017.
Cherise Stabler, communicable disease nurse for the district, said she believes the higher number of hospitalized flu cases in
2017 likely stems from a flu vaccine that didn’t match the strains of the flu afflicting most Lake County residents.
“This year’s flu vaccine is a better match,” she said.
The effectiveness of a newly developed vaccine varies because there are multiple strains of the flu that spread each season, the Food and Drug Administration stated in a Fortune magazine story.
Each vaccine is formulated to target three or four of the “most likely to circulate” strains each year, but figuring out which strains to include in the seasonal flu shot isn’t an exact science.
“One of the challenges in fighting flu is that the viruses can change their genetic makeup rapidly — not only between flu seasons, but also during the course of a single season,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “As a result, the seasonal influenza vaccine needs to be evaluated annually to see whether its composition needs to be adjusted.”
The vaccine developed for the 2017-18 season came under scrutiny after an estimated 80,000 Americans died of the flu and its complications last winter — the highest death toll from the disease in 40 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in an Associated Press story.
In Lake County, the General Health District recorded nine flu deaths of people age 65 and older during the 2017-18 season, Stabler said. No pediatric flu deaths were reported in the county for that same period.
Among the reasons that researchers believe last season’s flu season proved so deadly was that the virus mutated.
“We guessed right about the common strains that dominated last year’s flu season,” Gottlieb said. “It’s now believed that part of the reason that the vaccine was not as protective is that the flu strain used to manufacture the vaccine mutated very subtly during the development process.”
Components in the 201819 quadrivalent flu vaccine include updated versions of the A-strain known as H3N2 and the B-strain known as the Victoria lineage. The quadrivalent vaccine covers four strains of the flu virus.
Since the vaccine is supposed to last for six months, it’s often recommended that people get flu shots by the end of October. That way, a shot will provide protection for the entire flu season, including the period of January through March when flu activity often intensifies.
For anyone who has yet to be vaccinated this winter, getting a shot is still a good idea, along with taking other protective measures, Spencer said.
“We still have few months of flu season left,” she said. “A flu shot is one of the best ways to protect yourself and family from the flu, along with washing your hands with soap and water often or using an alcohol-based hand rub if soap and water isn’t available. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth, try to avoid contact with sick people and stay home when you are ill.”
So far in 2019, there have been three hospitalized flu cases in Geauga County through Jan. 7, Spencer said. The county recorded 54 such cases for the entire month of January in 2018.
In Lake County through Jan. 7, 10 hospitalized flu cases have been reported, which is one-tenth of 100 similar cases chalked up for all of the same month last year, Stabler said.
It’s not unusual to see higher numbers of hospitalized flu cases during the month of January, Stabler said. She said the increase usually is attributed to a lot of people being in close quarters during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve gatherings, These occasions often create additional opportunities to spread the flu virus through coughing, sneezing or talking, she explained.