Local hospital officials said flu-related hospitalizations are up this season, news that comes on the heels of an admission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that this year’s vaccine may not protect as well against the dominant flu strain seen so far.
“It’s scary for the public. We ask them to do everything, to get a flu shot, but the protection in this one was not a bull’s-eye,” said Dr. David Grossman, Toledo-Lucas County health commissioner.
There have been 33 people hospitalized with flu-related illnesses in the Toledo area and one influenza-related death as of Nov. 29, according to the health department. But local hospitals are reporting numbers that approach 50 or more.
At this point last year, there were only two hospitalizations and no deaths.
The flu vaccine contains several different strains of the virus. The H3N2 flu strain drifted or changed after the vaccine was made and now a different virus is circulating, meaning the current vaccine is not a good match for it, said Dr. Mary DiOrio, the Ohio Department of Health’s medical director.
While it is not unusual for a flu strain to drift, it is unusual for it to drift this late, Dr. Grossman said. He said this is why health officials ask people to get new vaccines each year.
Information provided by Toledo’s three major health-care systems also suggest that the number of flu cases has grown substantially during the last two weeks.
“No question, we are definitely seeing a ramp-up of flu in everything from patients to hospital workers and doctors,” said Dr. Kris Brickman, director of the emergency department at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio.
UTMC has already seen more patients test positive for the flu in the first week of December than in the entire month of November, Dr. Brickman said.
ProMedica hospital officials report that there have been at least 33 flu-related hospitalizations in its facilities to date. Likewise, Mercy health system reports that there have been 15 flu-related hospitalizations in its facilities in the Toledo area.
“In the last two weeks, and the last week especially, we have seen a spike,” said Dr. Dave Johnson, medical director of the emergency room at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. Dr. Johnson noted, however, that all of the people who have tested positive for flu in the emergency room at St. Vincent said they had not gotten a flu shot this year.
Statewide, the numbers of flu-associated hospitalizations are significantly higher with 202 through Nov. 29 compared with 89 last year. There has been one confirmed influenza-associated pediatric death, a teenager from southern Ohio. The health department does not require local agencies to report adult flu deaths — only those of children and teenagers.
“Whenever we have a season with the H3N2 virus, we see a lot of hospitalizations. It’s too early to say what role the drift will play in the whole season but it’s definitely concerning,” Dr. DiOrio said.
The CDC advisory noted that the flu virus samples that the agency took from Oct. 1 through Nov. 22 showed that just under half were a good match for the current influenza A (H3N2) component contained in flu shots for the 2014-2015 season, suggesting the virus has mutated.
Flu vaccine effectiveness tends to vary from year to year. Last winter, flu vaccine was 50 to 55 percent effective overall, which experts consider relatively good.
“The vaccine drift is something beyond our control. The main thing is for everybody to get their flu shot at this time. It will still protect you from the strain that the vaccine has. If you do not get the vaccine you will not be protected against anything,” said Dr. Uma Savanoor, medical director for ProMedica.
CDC officials said doctors should be on the lookout for patients who may be at higher risk for flu complications, including women who are pregnant, children younger than 2, adults 65 and older, and people with asthma, heart disease, weakened immune systems, or certain other chronic conditions. The agency is urging them to prescribe antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to vulnerable patients with flu symptoms without waiting for a positive flu test.
Those who are healthy and don’t suffer from complications should also try to get antiviral medication in the first 48 hours that symptoms appear, said Dr. Johnson. He added that if the flu is not caught early, there is little treatment that hospitals can give normally healthy adults in the emergeny room.
If nausea and vomiting causes a patient to get dehydrated, they should be seen by a doctor, but otherwise most patients can treat the flu at home by staying hydrated and keeping the fever under control with Tylenol or Motrin. It is best to avoid aspirin-based products, Dr. Johnson said.
Information from The Blade’s news services was used in this report.
Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor at mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.
First Published December 9, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
