Local medical professionals say flu lingered into spring
Jeffrey Frye
Brian Hair
Mark Soroka/For the Observer-Reporter
Monongahela Valley Hospital
Local emergency rooms and urgent care facilities are beginning to see cases of influenza taper off at this point, but the virus has stuck around longer this season than anyone would have liked.
Brian Hair, manager of the emergency department at Monongahela Valley Hospital, said that usually they see an early surge of the flu in December and then a bit of a lull before the resurgence in February and March.
“But this year there wasn’t a lot at the beginning and then it just took off in March,” he said.
The cases at Mon Valley began with just one case on Dec. 1, followed weekly throughout the month by three cases, eight cases and five cases.
While still on the low side, the numbers still continued to climb in January and February, rising weekly from three cases to eight cases, 10 cases, 12 cases and 23 cases.
The biggest number of cases occurred in March, with a whopping 74 cases for the week of March 17, 23 cases the week of March 21 and 24 cases the week of March 28.
The numbers began dwindling with 10 cases the week of April 7 and just three cases diagnosed the week of April 14.
Kristen Nordlund with the Centers for Disease Control’s public affairs office said most of the time, flu activity does peak between December and February, but there’s always the chance that it can last as late as May.
“For most of the season, Influenza A H1N1 predominated, however, in recent weeks, we’ve seen a second wave of flu activity that has been caused by Influenza A H3N2,” said Nordlund.
“It’s not unusual for there to be a second wave of flu activity during a flu season, but usually the second wave of flu activity is caused by an influenza B virus,” she added. “This season, there is still very little influenza B virus activity.”
Jeffrey Frye, area medical director with MedExpress, said their centers in Pennsylvania have seen a decrease in visits related to influenza-like illness in the last week.
“However, we’re certainly still seeing patients coming in with flu, so it’s important to remember those healthy hygiene habits, like frequent hand washing and wiping down surfaces, to help prevent catching a late-season illness.”
Frye added that this flu season hasn’t been as severe as previous seasons, but it does seem to be stretching longer than usual.
“It’s difficult to determine exactly what might be causing this, but it’s likely in part due to the fact that there has been a late-season increase in the H3N2 strain of the flu, which can be more severe, particularly for seniors, children and those with pre-existing conditions like asthma or diabetes,” he added.
Nordlund said this season has been considered moderately severe based on the CDC’s flu severity index.
“So far this season we estimate that there have been between 518,000 to 630,000 hospitalizations,” she said.
Locally, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is reporting the number of confirmed case of the flu this season at 1,563 in Fayette County, 386 in Greene County, 1,946 in Washington County and 3,205 in Westmoreland County.
Those numbers are up from last season, when Fayette County had 1,029 confirmed cases of the flu, Greene County had 195, Washington County had 1,916 and Westmoreland County had 2,778.
For this 2018-2019 flu season, the CDC reported that trivalent (three-component) vaccines were recommended to contain an H1N1 type A component, an H3N2 type A component and the Victorian Lineage type B virus.
The Quadrivalent (four-component) vaccines, which protect against a second lineage of B viruses, were recommended to contain the three recommended viruses above, plus Yamagata lineage type B virus.
For 2019-2020, trivalent vaccines are recommended to contain the same as this past season but different strains of each virus, and the quadrivalent will contain the same as the recommended trivalent vaccine with the addition of Yamagata lineage type B virus.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) made the selection of the H1N1 and both B components for 2019-2020 Northern Hemisphere flu vaccines on February 21 and at that time decided to delay the decision on an H3N2 vaccine component,” said Nordlund. “FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) also selected the H1N1 and B components at their first meeting on March 6, but also decided to postpone the selection of the H3N2 component.
“WHO selected the H3N2 component listed above on March 21, 2019, and VRBPAC chose the same H3N2 component for U.S. vaccines on March 22, 2019,” she added.