California’s flu season has started early this year. Here’s what you should know
California’s 2019-20 flu season started off early – and with a bang.
According to the state Department of Public Health, clinical and commercial laboratories have not reported influenza activity this high this early in the flu season since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009.
State epidemiologist Erin Murray said lab results are just one way that CDPH gauges the severity of flu in the state. Her team also tracks how many people were diagnosed with flu, but not admitted to a hospital. In looking at that statistic for this season, Murray said she had to go back to the 2014-15 season to find as much flu activity.
“We’re seeing a bit of everything right now,” Murray said. “We are seeing predominately influenza B/Victoria virus this year in California at the moment, and this is also being seen nationally. But we are also seeing influenza H1N1 and H3N2 viruses here in California, so we have a real mix, and there is a lot of variability across the U.S. as far as what’s predominating.”
Since Sept. 29, when this flu season began, 16 people have died from influenza viruses in California, including one in Placer County.
Dr. Arthur Jey, an emergency medicine doctor at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, said he didn’t notice much of a lull between flu seasons. Last year’s flu viruses hung on into the summer, he said, and this year’s season started earlier in the fall.
Nationally, some epidemiologists had been predicting a rough flu season in the United States, pointing out that Australia provided a rough barometer for how bad the flu season would be in the Northern Hemisphere and that the Aussies had reported unusually high rates of influenza infection.
But Murray said: “It’s really difficult to say how severe the season here in California or the U.S. might be. What happens in the Southern Hemisphere is not necessarily predictive of what will happen here, but it definitely is informative and gives us things to look at in our own data as we go through our flu season.”
Friday’s report from the Department of Public Health showed that flu activity was elevated everywhere in California except five counties: Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego. However, Murray said, she expected elevated activity statewide in coming weeks.
What flu is circulating?
And because there are several types of flu circulating, there’s a chance people just might run into the one that is especially virulent for their age group. For instance, Influenza B/Victoria virus is the most commonly reported flu among children under the age of 4, Murray said, and statistics show it has proven more deadly for them.
The influenza A/H1N1 virus tends to have more impact on middle-aged people, Murray said, and influenza A/H3N2 virus tends to be more life threatening for individuals age 65 and older. All can pose a danger for people with respiratory illnesses, diabetes and compromised immune systems.
Jey said that the flu shot is his way of protecting people in the community whose immune systems don’t respond to vaccines but that he also does it to for himself. He got the flu some years ago, he said, and it left him unable to work for two weeks. Typically unbowed by illness, he said, he gained a healthy respect for the devastating effects of the flu virus.
Flu season typically doesn’t hit peak rates of infection until January or February, Murray said, so there’s still time for people to get vaccinated. Murray and Jey said they recommend that everyone get the flu vaccine and practice healthy habits during the flu season. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer regularly. Cough into your elbow, your sleeve or a tissue rather than into your hand.
If you are in a high-risk group and believe you have contracted the flu, Jey said, recommended that you see a doctor immediately because you should be monitored. Also, he said, if people come in within the first 48 hours of contracting the illness, a dose of an antiviral medication known as Tamiflu can help reduce the severity of the illness.
If you have the flu, you will likely experience symptoms such as fever, chills, fatigue, muscle or body aches, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, and vomiting or diarrhea. If you have the flu and are healthy enough to ride it out, Jey recommends staying at home and drinking plenty of fluids.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 4:00 AM.
