The flu has arrived, sending victims to bed in 13 states, including Colorado, according to state and national health officials.
One person in Boulder County was confirmed as having the flu last week but did not need to be hospitalized, said state health department spokesman Mark Salley.
So far, influenza cases are “sporadic” and there have been no related deaths in the country, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week.
No one, however, is dismissing the season yet.
“It’s still too early to tell, and flu is fluky,” said Margaret Huffman, an influenza specialist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
While the 2003-04 flu season was Colorado’s worst in recent years, Huffman said, by this time in 2003, only four states had reported sporadic flu activity – including Colorado.
“The virus is changeable, the patterns of circulation change, the timing, duration, intensity of activity,” Huffman said. “It’s really hard to get this tiger by the tail.”
In the meantime, health providers across the country are beginning their annual push to get people vaccinated.
At Children’s Hospital in Aurora, where managers expect to immunize some 7,000 staff and patients during flu season, more than 400 shots have already been dispensed, said Chris Nyquist, the hospital’s director of infection control.
The viral illness kills 36,000 people in the United States every year on average, said Lynnette Brammer, a CDC influenza epidemiologist.
“The vaccine is the best way to prevent getting the flu, or of making it less severe if you do get it,” Brammer said.
The CDC has a long list of people who should get the flu shot – including children older than 6 months, pregnant women, anyone older than 50, and health care providers.
That adds up to well over half the general population, she said.
The dead viruses used in influenza vaccines occasionally don’t match well with the strains that end up causing problems, Brammer said. Manufacturers must make their best guesses months before flu season starts.
Even in years when the match isn’t perfect, the vaccine gives victims their best chance at protection, Brammer said.
“It reduces the number of hospitalizations and deaths,” she said.
In Colorado, 364 people diagnosed with flu were hospitalized in the 2006-07 season, according to state figures, and one child died.
Adult flu deaths are not tracked by the state.
In the 2005-06 season, 848 people in the state were hospitalized with flu, and two children died.
Huffman said state officials have begun a campaign to persuade health care workers to get vaccinated.
No state figures are available, but nationally, fewer than 40 percent of health care workers receive the flu vaccine each year.
People infected with the flu virus can pass it on a day before they begin feeling symptoms, Huffman said, and that puts health care workers at risk of giving the flu to vulnerable patients.
Children’s Hospital’s Nyquist said hospitals in other states are considering requiring vaccination for employment.
Instead, Children’s Hospital offers vaccines free of charge to staff, most patients and families, she said.
Staff members wheel vaccination carts around the hospital, offering flu shots in every department and during every employee gathering this time of year, Nyquist said.
“This is a vaccine-preventable illness, and the vaccine is just as important as washing your hands,” she said.
Katy Human: 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com
Flu facts
The federal government last month approved an inhaled flu vaccine called FluMist for use in children as young as 2. It was previously approved for healthy people ages 5 to 49.
For information on where to get a flu vaccination in Colorado, go to .
A 2004 Institute of Medicine report concluded that vaccines, including the preservatives in them, do not cause autism. Scientific evidence does not support a link between vaccines and autism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports.
Although vaccination is the best way to prevent flu, the CDC offers many other prevention tips at .
The CDC recommends being vaccinated against flu as early as immunizations become available in the fall. That’s because it can take a week or two for a flu immunization to become fully effective, and it’s difficult to predict when the season will begin in earnest.
Sources: Food and Drug Administration, The Associated Press, National Academy of Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
