November 18, 2003
By Wire and Staff Reports
Photo: Alma Sullivan, 76, receives a flu shot. Cuban researchers said they have produced the first synthetic vaccine against pneumonia(AFP/Getty Images/File/Mario Villafuerte)
The flu season has started much more quickly than usual and features what could be an especially nasty strain of the virus, signs that the nation could be facing a severe influenza outbreak this year, federal health officials said Monday.
Although it remains too early to know how bad the winter will be, Texas is reporting flu cases statewide, Colorado is experiencing a regional outbreak and cases have been reported in 30 other states, officials said.
"We're very concerned that the flu season has had an earlier onset than we've seen in many years, and we are seeing some parts of the country that are having very high levels of widespread flu infection," Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a media briefing.
Based on the ominous early indications, federal health officials again urged Americans to get a flu shot as soon as possible.
"That's why we're here today - to sound the alarm," Gerberding said. "The point is that people need to get their flu shot. This is the time for Americans to really step up to the plate and get vaccinated against influenza, especially because this could be a worse-than-usual flu season."
In Tennessee, at least two influenza cases had been confirmed as of Monday - earlier in the flu season than anyone in the Tennessee Department of Health can remember, said deputy state epidemiologist Dr. Tim Jones.
Mississippi health officials confirmed the first positive flu culture in the DeSoto County area.
Other cases have been confirmed in the Tupelo, Jackson and Hattiesburg areas.
At the same time, world health officials are bracing for the possibility that SARS could re-emerge, sparking another deadly and disruptive global health emergency.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome sickened more than 8,000 people this year, killed 780 and staggered the economies of Toronto, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
Tennessee's Jones said the early start doesn't mean a bad flu season is inevitable.
"Earlier doesn't necessarily mean worse. You can have an early peak and still be mild," he said.
The strain of flu showing up this year is part of a deadly group called H3N2, a type of flu that leads to more deaths and hospitalizations than other flu strains.
Because this year's flu vaccine targets a slightly different type of H3N2 flu than patients are getting, doctors have no idea how well the vaccine will work.
The virus changes slightly over time, a change doctors call "drift," which is why doctors suggest getting a new flu shot every year.
And despite "relatively minor shift" in flu strains detected so far, the vaccines still should provide good protection, Jones said.
Gerberding agreed: "Whatever the drift is, the vaccine will still provide some cross-protection, so we're optimistic that will be the case this year, but of course we'll be watching it very carefully."
Anyone who wants a flu shot should get one, but officials particularly recommend vaccination for anyone age 50 and older, anyone with health problems that make them especially vulnerable and children ages 6 months to 23 months.
Gerberding singled out health care workers as among those who should get vaccinated.
She stressed that the vaccine is safe and, contrary to popular misconceptions, does not cause the flu.
"It takes about two weeks to develop maximum protection after a flu shot, so we urge people not to delay," she said.
In an average year, the disease infects up to 20 percent of the U.S. population, killing about 36,000 Americans and hospitalizing 114,000.
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