Influenza Update

Influenza continues to extract a toll on Whitman County residents. While the initial tidal wave of influenza-like illness at Washington State University seems to be slowing to an ebb, the ripples of that wave are now being felt in Pullman and surrounding communities. This week and last, the Whitman County Health Department has received reports of student absenteeism rates reaching 20% in some schools.

Exact counts of the number of influenza cases in the county are difficult to determine. Many patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) do not seek or need medical evaluation. We have no way of knowing how many cases of ILI fall in that category. Local medical providers have been seeing increased numbers of patients with ILI in the last few weeks, but there is no requirement they report the numbers of patients they see to the Health Department. And even though schools do report the number of students who are absent, our ability to reliably determine that the absent students actually have influenza is quite limited.

However, we are able to track the number of patients hospitalized with ILI or with complications from ILI. The number of patients hospitalized with ILI provide a good gauge of the amount of influenza activity in a community. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the rate of hospitalization for H1N1 flu is similar to seasonal flu, or about 1 percent. Since the middle of August, only 10 persons in Whitman County have been hospitalized with ILI. So that would mean we have had approximately 1000 cases of Influenza. If we include the dozen or so WSU students that have required intravenous fluids for their ILI as hospitalized cases, then we are up over 2200 cases.

Two thousand or so cases of flu a year is not abnormal for Whitman County. What is wildly abnormal is that these cases have occurred over just three weeks at a time of year we never see influenza. This is a new flu. This is H1N1 influenza. Our experience here shows how quickly this virus can spread in a non-immune and unprepared population.

A few simple steps might reduce the rapid spread of H1N1 to a slow crawl. These are the best options we have until the H1N1 vaccine arrives:

• Wash your hands frequently
• Don't touch your nose, mouth or eyes
• Wash high-touch surfaces regularly
• Don't share with others items you put in your mouth
• Cover your coughs and sneezes with your sleeve rather than your hands
• Stay home if you are sick with the flu. Don't return to work or school until 24 hours after your fever has resolved without the use of fever reducers.