Transcription:

Melanie Cole: Influenza is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and sometimes even death. Every flu season is different and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year’s flu season is nasty and it’s turning out to be more severe than previous seasons. My guest today is Dr. Jenice Forde-Baker. She’s associate director in the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. Welcome to the show. Explain a little bit about this year’s flu season. How would you characterize it?

Dr. Jenice Forde-Baker, MD: I would characterize it as a very severe flu season this year and partly that is due to the fact that the vaccinations that we want everyone to get to help protect against the flu virus are just not as effective as it has been in the past. This year's vaccination is roughly estimated to be about 10% to 30% effective, so probably 20% effective if you've received a flu vaccine. What we're seeing right now in the emergency department is many patients are coming in, they received a flu vaccine, but they are still coming down with a lot of symptoms from the flu virus. It is just very debilitating and makes patients feel very weak, they have fevers, they're having diarrhea and it is very often that I will go to the emergency department and work a shift and we have at least five to eight people diagnosed with influenza a day. It's just that it is very rampant and unfortunately the vaccine is not as effective as in the past and that's why we're seeing such high numbers of flu patients right now.

Melanie: Other than the vaccine being quite not as effective, what's different about this year’s flu? Is this a different strain we’re seeing?

Dr. Forde-Baker: The thing is the flu virus can always change its strain. There's primarily influenza A and B. Partly of why the vaccine is not that good is due to that. What scientists and researchers do when they're trying to create the vaccines for the next year is that they try to predict what the changes may be, make a vaccine and hope that it will cover the majority of the strain, but it’s just that this year, the vaccine that we have hasn’t been good and that’s because the flu virus does mutate. It’s an organism, it’s a living human being, it’s trying to survive just like we are, and that’s why they do try to mutate and the mutations are done so that they can survive. Unfortunately, the mutations just mean that it’s going to be better at getting us sick, so that is partly why it’s not as effective as the virus changes as well and it makes it stronger helping it to survive.

Melanie: Have we reached the peak yet, do you think?

Dr. Forde-Baker: The thing is you usually have different peaks for the flu season. It usually tends to start in October and it lasts until about March. I would say that for this flu season, it really peaked in January to February. Other years we would usually see an uptake that starts in December, but this year it didn't really start up taking in December at least in our emergency department in Camden. We really saw an uptake in January and February. We still have to get through the whole month of February and it can still last until March, so it's not much over right now. We're still in the heart of the flu season. That being said, although the virus is not as effective, we would still want individuals to go and get the vaccination because if you can do anything to help prevent you getting the virus or help you survive the course of the infection once you do have the virus, we would still advocate for that because the complications can be life-threatening in some cases.

Melanie: If someone thinks they have the beginnings of the flu, is there anything that can be done to lessen some of the severe symptoms?

Dr. Forde-Baker: We actually do have a treatment that we can use to help treat the flu infection and it is a drug called Tamiflu. What you stated is so important, the beginning of your flu. The Tamiflu medication will help decrease the symptoms that you will have from the flu by about one to two days, but it is important to start that medication once you have less than 72 hours of symptoms. Again, this is why it's so important that early on, that first or second day, if you're still having fevers and body aches, that you go and see a medical professional. We can swab you, we can actually test for the influenza virus, and if that is positive, then you can get a treatment that can help decrease your symptoms, and therefore help decrease the complications from the flu virus. The longer you wait, the worse it is. One, you will not be in the category where you cannot get the medication, and two, it is harder to treat once the train has gotten out the barn and you have a lot of complications from the flu virus.

Melanie: What is the best way to protect young children that are too young to get the vaccine?

Dr. Forde-Baker: The best way if you want to protect young children or even anyone who is immunocompromised – meaning they are not well enough to get the vaccine for whatever reason – is that individuals or family members that live around them that they protect themselves and get the flu vaccination. If it is a situation where individuals cannot get the flu vaccination, the next best thing is to do just good hand washing hygiene. The flu virus is transmitted through droplets from someone that's infected. If you are standing within six feet of that person, those droplets are going into the air, and as they are breathing and talking to you, you can inhale the flu virus through the air droplets. If you're further away and you're living with someone who may be having signs of the flu, which can mimic a common cold but they are coughing, having fevers, chills, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, but they're sneezing and coughing onto hard surface, the virus can live on those surfaces, and if you go and touch that and your hands touch your mouth and you ingest that, then you can get the flu virus. Again, good hygiene with cleaning down surfaces if you are in a place where someone is infected or having any signs of the flu virus, cleaning down with Clorox wipes or anything where you can kill the virus, that will be very good. If you're coughing and you're sick, wear a protective mask so that you're not putting that virus into the air droplets for your young child to get and making sure that everyone is washing hands. If you're sick, you're not the primary caretaker and not holding that child too close. Those would be very good precautions to take to prevent anyone else from getting the flu virus.

Melanie: How long are you contagious?

Dr. Forde-Baker: You're going to be contagious as long as you're actually coughing, as long as you're actually passing the droplets, and also when you have the fever, so if you're having a fever and even after the fever. As long as you continue to cough and you're continuing to put those viruses into the air, you will be contagious. That could happen for a period after the fever breaks, so really you will be contagious as long as you continue to have the coughing.

Melanie: As an emergency room physician, what would you like to tell people in summary about this year’s flu season, the importance of hand washing and food hygiene, still getting the vaccine, what you want them to know?

Dr. Forde-Baker: I think I want people to know the flu is very serious and it is very lethal. It is killing children – it's claimed about 53 deaths in pediatric patients – and it will kill adults and older patients as well. I want patients to listen to their bodies and see how they're doing. Know the difference between a common cold where it's just a little cough, a little sore throat, but if you are going on for more than one to two days with high fevers, you are having chills, having body aches, having vomiting and diarrhea, you are unable to keep up with your fluid intake, please come to the emergency department to get tested.

What you need is supportive care. If you are unable to keep your fluids in, that can lead to your body having dehydration and causing a lot more problems later down the line from sepsis and even renal failure, and that is where it gets very dangerous. If you're going on two days of having fever, you're unable to keep any liquids down, you're having a lot of coughing and diarrhea, come to the emergency room, get evaluated by a medical professional so that we can find out if you are in the category where you're at high risk of having complications from the influenza virus and when you're coming in early enough when the interventions can help. Before you get the flu, remember, you want to wash your hands. If you're in contact with anyone who sees that they may be sick or ill, have them wear a mask. If you're going to be living in close quarters, keep those areas clean as you can and wipe down surfaces with cleaning agents and antibacterial agents as much as you can. The next best thing is if you're unsure, call your doctor, make sure that if you haven't gotten a flu vaccine, you can call the office and find out about it, you can still get the vaccine. It becomes effective two weeks after you get the vaccination, and as I said, we’re just starting all of February and March is still flu season, so don’t think that it’s over just because maybe we’ve passed the new year and you're not at risk of getting it. You can still get the flu infection, so getting the flu vaccine can still be helpful to prevent you from having a severe infection from the flu.

Melanie: Thank you so much for coming on today. What great information, so important for listeners to hear at this point. This is Lourdes Health Talk. For more information, visit lourdesnet.org. That’s lourdesnet.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.