Saturday, January 08, 2000
Flu or not, we're feeling crummy
Many cases are mistaken
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It seems as if everybody in town either has been sick or knows somebody who has been in the past few weeks. Chalk it up to the annual flu season, right? Not necessarily.
Did you have vomiting, diarrhea and cramps? That probably wasn't influenza, doctors say.
Did you have a wet cough, a sore throat and lots of sinus pain and pressure? Might have been a mild flu case. More likely it was one of many other seasonal viral or bacterial infections.
Did you have a sudden high fever, lots of muscle aches or joint pain, extreme fatigue and a dry, non-productive cough? Did you start the day feeling normal then end up going home feeling as if you had just gotten run over by a Mack truck?
Now that, doctors say, was the flu.
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WHAT IF YOU GET THE FLU?
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If you do get sick, there are two medications on the market this year that manufacturers say can reduce the duration of the illness: Relenza and Tamiflu.
Relenza works like an asthma inhaler. Tamiflu is a pill.
Doctors are watching to see how well the drugs really work.
Some people also find relief from homeopathic and herbal remedies available at various health food stores.
And recently published studies also indicate that chicken soup actually seems to help.
Vaccine is best way to escape flu
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“With a cold, people feel bad but they can go about their daily business. When people have the flu, they are really knocked out,” said Dr. Mi chael Bain, medical director of emergency services at Tri-Health.
Many people, including news organizations and even some doctors, incorrectly use the word “flu” to describe all sorts of common infections that tend to hit during winter months.
“The fact is, very few patients are ever tested to determine if they have influenza,” said Dr. Tim Uyeki, a medical epidemiologist with the influenza branch of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There is a lot of flu going around,” Dr. Uyeki said. “But not every patient coming into the emergency room saying they have the flu actually has the flu.”
As of Jan. 1 — the latest national data available — 13 states (including Indiana) reported widespread flu activity; 22 (including Ohio) reported regional activity; 14 (including Kentucky) reported sporadic activity; and one (Alabama) reported no activity.
Despite alarmist media coverage about busy hospitals in several states, there are no signs yet that this winter's influenza season has been or will be unusually harsh, Dr. Uyeki said.
The CDC and state health officials have confirmed through lab testing that the leading flu strain going around is covered by this year's flu vaccine. And there is no evidence to date that a manufacturer made a bad or weak batch of vaccine.
Instead, the nation is coping with what appears to be a somewhat early start to the busy part of the flu season. Some states started seeing large numbers of flu cases in December, when the biggest numbers typically come in January, February and March.
The early wave may seem extra harsh in part because last year's flu season hit late. In Ohio and nationwide, the flu was unusually slow in January and February, then peaked in March and April.
The bottom line: Not even the CDC will know until late February or early March whether this is an above-average or below-average flu season, Dr. Uyeki said.
While the general public may have turned the word “flu” into a slang term for any winter illness, true influenza is a potentially serious disease caused by a specific class of viruses.
Unlike the routine-yet-miserable soup of winter bugs that can cause children to miss school and adults to miss work, public health officials worldwide pay close attention to influenza.
This fall, up to 90 million Americans (including an estimated 66 percent of all people over 65) lined up for flu vaccines, which change every year in an attempt to stay ahead of the most common strains going around the globe.
Every year, hundreds of “sentinel” physicians nationwide collect lab samples from the first few flu cases they see. Then state and federal health officials use those lab samples to confirm whether that season's flu vaccine was accurate.
The vaccine's accuracy is a serious issue, because history has shown the consequences of a new, unchecked flu virus.
In 1918, American soldiers in World War I unwittingly infected Europe with a virus eventually known as the Spanish flu. By 1920, more than 20 million people worldwide had died, including about 550,000 Americans.
In 1957, the Asian flu killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide. In America, about 69,800 died and more than half the nation's schoolchildren were thought to be infected.
Even with the increasingly common use of flu vaccines, influenza typically infects about 20 percent of the U.S. population, causes 300,000 hospital stays and kills about 20,000 people a year. More than 90 percent of the deaths involve people over 65.
Influenza rarely kills all by itself. Instead, it causes complications, such as pneumonia, that can lead to death.
People at highest risk of serious complications include everybody over 65, as well as younger people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma, emphysema, diabetes, AIDS, or other immune-weakening conditions.
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