Influenza activity is widespread and increased significantly last week in Colorado, the state health department says, with every indication this flu season will be severe.
For the week ending Saturday, there were 262 hospitalizations for influenza, including 190 new cases in Colorado, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported.
School officials in Weld County are holding their collective breath and slathering on hand sanitizer, trying to hang on until Christmas break with student bodies infected with ailments from and to and .
Johnstown and Milliken schools saw up to 15 percent absenteeism Wednesday among 3,400 students. They were stricken with any of the above and head colds. Outbreaks started the middle of last week.
“It’s getting better,” Superintendent Martin Foster said Thursday. “We’re turning a corner, I think. Absences are down slightly today. Soon they can all go home on break and get well.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that flu has been widespread in the state since Dec. 6.
This , federal health officials have said, as this year’s vaccine is expected to be less effective because of mutations in active flu strains. Yet vaccination is still the best defense, the CDC says, along with vigorous, frequent hand washing.
The state health department’s cumulative total for hospitalizations this season for influenza — mostly involving potent influenza A (or H3N2) — is 510 in 29 counties.
So far this season in Denver, there have been 74 influenza-associated hospitalizations, with 29 of them occurring last week, according to the CDPHE.
Several northern Colorado counties have been hit hard, but spikes also have been seen in Pueblo, Yuma and Costilla counties.
On Dec. 12, Crowley County School District closed its three schools in Ordway, 53 miles east of Pueblo, because so many kids were sick, according to The Gazette. The absentee rate was more than 20 percent.
Larimer County reported the hospitalization of 49 people with flu symptoms as of Wednesday. County health officials confirmed Monday the death of an 18-month-old child from influenza.
Denver Public Schools reported several schools with “significant student absences,” but released no numbers.
Young children and the elderly are at highest risk from influenza. There were no pediatric deaths from flu reported in Colorado during 2013-14 season.
Flu kills an estimated 36,000 people in the United States each year, the CDC reports. Colorado tracks only pediatric deaths.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper
