Dec 28, 2003 By Josh Krysak 6 min read

With temperatures dropping throughout the region and cold, wintry weather settling in for the next few months, many area residents have felt a climate change of their own with coughs, aches, fevers and sweats. An early flu season has gripped the district.

And while area residents and people across the country are scrambling to get the last remaining vaccinations to prevent the disease, area doctors said the inoculation is only about 50 percent effective combating the strain striking people this year.

“Compared to last year, we are much busier,” said Dr. Jeffrey Frye, director and chairman of the Uniontown Hospital emergency room. “We average 15 to 20 admissions a day, and probably half of it has been related to the influenza and pneumonia and that sort of stuff.”

Frye said Friday, Dec. 12, was an example of the widespread nature of this year’s flu season. Of 157 patients treated in the emergency room that day, 65 unconfirmed but suspicious cases probably were flu related. He said the ER is designed to handle about 140 patients a day and that often the past few weeks, the department has averaged more than 200 daily.

“Compared to other years in the area, it has been a true increase, particularly in older adults and the chronically ill,” said Dr. Jeff James, infectious disease specialist at the hospital.

Uniontown is not the only area that has been hit hard by this flu season.

Twenty-four states have been hit severely by the outbreak, and the Centers for Disease Control said that cases have been reported in all 50 states.

More than a dozen children have died during the spate, and some experts predict that this year’s influenza death toll could exceed the 92 infant and toddler deaths annually and the overall average of 36,000 each year.

The CDC also said the strain affecting most flu suffers this year is severe and is not covered in the flu vaccination for the year, which remains in short supply. Only 83 million doses were made. The CDC is advising healthy people between 5 and 49 years old who wish to be vaccinated for the illness to inquire about a nasal vaccine, FluMist, which remains available.

Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the state Department of Health, said that while the CDC has yet to classify this year’s outbreak as an epidemic, more and more cases are being reported each day and, like in the rest of the country, the vaccination is nearly impossible to find in Pennsylvania.

“We have had a couple of mild seasons the last few years. This is an increase,” McGarvey said. “I don’t think we are at the peak yet, but the flu is very hard to predict.”

He said the lack of vaccinations remaining is due to the extreme demand for shots after early flu outbreaks plagued the western United States.

He said that this year more vaccinations were administered than ever before.

“Suddenly, people who never wanted the flu shot wanted it,” he said.

McGarvey said that during good flu seasons, about 10 percent of the U.S. population catches the illness, and during bad years up to 20 percent can be infected.

This year, he said, even those vaccinated remain at risk, because the strain, A Fujian, was not predicted to be the foremost type of the bug to hit the nation; A Panama was.

According to James, the A Panama strain is included in the flu shot this year, but without an exact match to the A Fujian strain affecting the nation, the injection cannot fully combat the infection. He said this year’s vaccination contains two strains of A influenza and one strain of B. Annually, the CDC must examine which strains are expected to be most prevalent and protect against them, thus limiting each year’s batch of the vaccination to an annual shelf life.

Frye noted that Uniontown Hospital does not administer them to patients, and people interested in getting the vaccination should contact their primary care physicians.

“We have been getting calls as far as Pittsburgh asking if we have flu shots,” Frye said. “Most people don’t get the flu shot. This year there are people scrambling for the flu shot who would never think about getting it. There are a lot of kids getting flu shots who never got it.”

James said he still advocates receiving a flu shot if possible, even though it is only about 50 percent effective – normally the shot is 70 to 90 percent potent – and that simple things are key to reducing the risk of contracting the flu.

“The main thing is to really pay attention to hand hygiene,” James said.

He said people should cover their mouths when they cough, use hand sanitizers and stay home if they are already infected.

Frye agreed: “Generally, with the flu you are sick for a week to 10 days, no matter what you do. …With kids, they often get over it quicker. It literally puts people out of commission.

“You can actually make sure you are not overtired. Everyone gets so exhausted, and that lowers his or her immune systems. If you are out drinking all night, sitting next to someone who has the flu, I don’t know what the statistics are, but I know you are a lot more likely to get the flu.”

Frye said another key to battling the illness is staying hydrated.

“You can take a whole bottle of Motrin and poison yourself and not bring your fever down if you don’t have enough fluids…most people underestimate how much they drink. They say they are drinking all the time, but if you have a 104-degree fever and sweating, your fluids are running out.”

Frye also said effective medications on the market can help alleviate the symptoms associated with the flu.

“There are some expensive medications out there, like Tamiflu, and some others that helps to shorten the course of the flu, if you catch it in the first two days,” Frye said.

According to Tom Ruden, pharmacist at Jendral’s Pharmacy in Uniontown, prescriptions for Tamiflu and other flu-related products are way up from previous years and that a course of Tamiflu for an adult, 10 capsules for five days, costs about $67.

And even then, Frye said, the medication could only lessen the flu’s effects, not defeat the illness altogether.

One area that hasn’t suffered severe outbreaks is Greene County. Mary Lee Headlee, section control coordinator at Greene County Memorial Hospital, said the number of flu cases there has been about average and that the hospital still has a limited number of flu shots available for qualifying Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Also, area school districts have not reported a rise in absenteeism or an outbreak in the flu, despite the fact that other schools around the country are closing due to the illness.

The CDC said about 8,400 children are hospitalized with the illness each year and that the flu is the sixth leading cause of death in children under 4 years old.

In the 1990s, the flu claimed 17,000 to 65,000 lives annually.