Flu season had statewide impact this year

200 more deaths compared to last season.

This year’s flu season was not directly tracked, but some statistics that are tracked show this flu season packed a punch.

Kimberly McCaw, BSN, RN nursing supervisor for Grays Harbor County Public Health, said influenza (informally known as the flu) is not a reportable disease, so tracking how many individual cases are treated within the county and state is a difficult task.

There is, however, another way to track the impact of the flu during a flu season; cause of death is reportable and tracked by the state and county public health departments, and that statistic gives some insight.

“We had a lot of flu deaths in Washington State,” McCaw said.

The flu season runs July through July each year. In Grays Harbor County, flu season peaks during the months of January and February. For the current season, there have been 268 deaths caused by influenza statewide. That’s compared to 68 last year.

Most of the people who die from influenza are 65 years old or older, and they generally have some sort of chronic disease (like diabetes or heart disease), McCaw explained.

In Grays Harbor County, two people died from influenza this season. While that number isn’t staggering, McCaw points out that it’s a stark increase by comparison. Both were older than 65, and both had chronic conditions.

“We normally don’t get a death, or only one death,” she said.

In some past years, the influenza vaccine (flu shot or spray) has had limited effectiveness because researchers have to forecast which influenza virus will break out and they don’t always forecast correctly. That was not the case this year, McCaw says.

“The vaccine matches really well with the flu virus going around this year,” she said.

McCaw also stressed that the vaccine remains the best defense against the virus, coupled with good hygiene (both hand washing and covering coughs).

And while McCaw says the state is “definitely on the downhill slide of influenza this year,” there’s still time to get a flu shot.

“There are still flu vaccines until the end of June, so it’s never too late to get it,” McCaw said.

If a patient is seen with influenza symptoms early enough antiviral medications can be prescribed (within the first 48 hours) to lessen the severity or shorten the duration of the symptoms, McCaw added.

Also prevalent this winter was gastroenteritis (known by the misnomer of “stomach flu”). Gastroenteritis can have many causes, including viruses such as Norovirus and Rotavirus.

McCaw said gastroenteritis, like influenza, is not reportable, so tracking the illness is difficult.

“There was a lot of anecdotal evidence from coworkers and friends who said they had thrown up for 24 hours,” McCaw said. “But public health was not contacted by a school or company asking to have them come out for widespread cases.”

In that case, McCaw said the best prevention is handwashing. She advises the public to use disinfectant wipes on shopping carts at grocery stores.

Ultimately, McCaw said residents should continue to get an influenza vaccine each year and focus on hand washing and respiratory hygiene (covering coughs).