Protecting against the flu
Pay attention to the basics. Sleep, diet and personal hygiene are the foundation of your ability to fight off diseases since changes in these affect the immune system.
Wash your hands frequently. Nothing is more protective against germs than frequent hand washing. Wash in soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Cover your cough or sneeze. Put your used tissue in the waste basket. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve or elbow, not your hands.
Stay home from work or school whenever you think you might be sick. CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or other necessities.
Get your flu shot. Even though recent reports have questioned the effectiveness of this year's flu shot, getting the shot is still the best way to avoid severe symptoms, to lower contagiousness and to prevent further complications.
Sources: Dr. Timothy Horton, a pediatrician in Vidalia, CDC and Georgia Department of Public Health.
Most people with the flu have mild illness and do not need medical care or antiviral drugs. In most cases, if you get sick with flu symptoms you should avoid contact with other people except to get medical care, according to the CDC. If you are in a high risk group, very sick or worried about your illness, contact your health care provider.
The CDC urges people to seek emergency medical care for a sick child with any of these symptoms:
• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
• Fever with a rash
In adults:
• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Flu-like symptoms that improve but then return with fever and worse cough
The death toll in Georgia from flu-related deaths has climbed to 12 since Oct. 1, including a 3-year-old child, according to state and national data. And flu season seems to have peaked earlier than usual.
Most of the deaths involved adults 65 and older, according to the latest flu report released by the Georgia Department of Public Health. Last year at this time, flu activity was low: intensity was a 4 on a scale of 1-10, and there were eight flu-associated deaths statewide. This season’s flu activity is widespread and intensity is 10 – and has been for the past 2-3 weeks, said Nancy Nydam, state health department spokeswoman.
There have been 459 people hospitalized so far this season for flu-related illness in metro Atlanta area. Last year, there were 296 hospitalizations in metro Atlanta during the same time period.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has seen about twice as many children with confirmed cases of influenza – about 80-100 a week — compared to last flu season, said Dr. Andi Shane, medical epidemiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase,” said Shane. “We’re seeing a lot of cases.”
There’s also been a big seasonal bump in the number of children suffering from other viruses that cause similar symptoms to flu, she added.
A factor contributing to this year’s severe flu season is the limited effectiveness of the vaccine. The dominant flu strain this year — H3N2 — has mutated, and only about half of the cases match the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Flu viruses are constantly changing and they mutate all the time — from one season to the next or they can even change within the course of the same season. This kind of gradual change is called “drifting.”
The CDC continues to strongly recommend vaccination against the flu. While the vaccine may be less effective against drifted viruses, it can still provide some protection and help prevent flu-related complications. The vaccine is also as good as usual for those strains that haven’t mutated.
Since experts must pick which viruses to include in the vaccine several months in advance to produce and deliver the vaccine for the upcoming flu season, there’s always a risk that the circulating viruses will deviate from the ones used for the vaccine. There’s not enough time to change the vaccine for this flu season.
In past years, H3N2 strains have tended to be more severe, sending more people to the hospital than other strains — and causing more deaths, especially among the elderly, children and people with weakened immune systems.
The flu usually takes the highest toll on the very young and the very old.
In the week ending December 20, nearly 7 percent of deaths were attributed to pneumonia and flu, according to CDC data that came from a 122-city fatality reporting system.
At least 15 children have died this season from flu-related deaths across the country, according to the CDC. The 3-year-old child who died from flu-related complications here in Georgia had no existing health conditions such as asthma, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The CDC is also urging people with flulike symptoms to seek treatment as soon as possible. Tamiflu and Relenza, a class of drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors, are designed to block replication of the flu virus in the body. They work best when taken within a day or two of getting sick, and experts say these antiviral medications seem to be particularly effective with this season’s virus circulating.
With a severe flu season and less-effective vaccine, Nydam said it’s key to rely on the basics such as frequent handwashing, covering coughs and sneezes, staying home from work or school whenever you think you might be sick.
And it’s still a good idea to get vaccinated because there’s usually another peak in January or February after children return to school from the holidays, making it easier for infections to spread, she said.
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