- Hello Jeff: What do you bet that later the CDC will start
using "Flu like" and Influenza LIKE illness when they describe
this Influenza A virus?
-
- I can't help but think this Influenza A is a recombinent
virus. It has to have novel properties or it would not hit so hard. In
other words (especially children) have no immunities to this virus.
-
- Patricia
-
- Flu Patients Inundate Hospitals
- Entire Families With Aching Bodies, High Temps
- By Barbara Anderson
- The Fresno Bee
- December 2, 2003
-
- One of the ugliest flu bugs to be seen in several years
is sending hundreds of central San Joaquin Valley residents to doctors'
offices and emergency rooms.
-
- At Children's Hospital Central California in Madera County,
the waiting room was standing room only throughout the Thanksgiving weekend.
-
- "Almost every child who came in tested positive
for influenza A," said hospital spokeswoman Micheline Golden.
-
- "It is an epidemic in our hospital, and it is definitely
showing as a problem in the community," Golden said.
-
- Children's has seen 478 children with flu in the past
three weeks.
-
- At the urgent-care center run by Northwest Medical Group
in Fresno, Administrator Lisa Jelinek said the best way to describe this
past weekend was: "It was an absolute zoo."
-
- On Friday, people waited two to three hours to see doctors,
she said. And Saturday was equally busy. "We had them lying in the
corridors -- on the floor -- they were so sick," she said.
-
- Entire families showed up at Saint Agnes Medical Center
with achy bodies and high temperatures. Thanksgiving was steady, said Saint
Agnes spokesman Rob Veneski. "But Friday is when it really hit."
-
- At Kaweah Delta Hospital in Visalia, infection-control
coordinator Kathy Wittman said this is the worst flu season she has seen
since she began her job 12 years ago.
-
- Doctors at Kaweah treated 60 patients with the flu in
November -- 23 this weekend alone. The five-year average for flu cases
handled in November at the hospital: seven.
-
- November typically is a quiet month, with influenza hitting
hardest in December and January. If trends can be counted on, this early
flu season could mean the peak occurs this month and a decline will begin
in January, Wittman said.
-
- "But there's always the potential of a second resurgence
into March," she said. The flu is already widespread this season in
Colorado, Texas and Nevada, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. At least four children have died because of the disease
in Colorado.
-
- About 700 people were seen in the emergency room at Community
Medical Center-Fresno this weekend. More than half had flu-like symptoms,
a Community spokeswoman said. And 115 others visited the emergency room
at Community hospital in Clovis.
-
- At Children's Hospital, the emergency department couldn't
hold all the parents and children. Only one parent was allowed inside with
a child, and still the waiting room overflowed to the outside. The wait
was as long as 10 hours for some.
-
- Masks were available to everyone -- and anyone with a
cough had to wear one, Golden said. Schools are noticing the flu's impact
on absenteeism.
-
- At the Clovis Unified School District, absences were
noticeably higher Monday than they were the same date in 2002. In the elementary
grades, 1,294 students -- 7.2% of the 17,903 enrolled -- were absent Monday.
Last year at this time, 5.5% were home ill.
-
- Peachwood Medical Center in Clovis is seeing an increase
in requests for flu shots for healthy children, said Sharon Laird, medical
support coordinator.
-
- "I was worried I had too much vaccine," Laird
said. "And now I'm worried I'm not going to have enough."
-
- The reporter can be reached at banderson@fresnobee.com
or 441-6310.
-
- http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7841699p-8724934c.html
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergi
ngdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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