Fear of Flu

Last week, my husband, an infectious diseases physician, came home and announced with some concern, "The flu is here."

He was told about a handful of patients from Washington County with laboratory-confirmed flu, along with a colleague, a doctor, who was home with fever and chills and a positive flu test. And this doctor had received a flu shot.

My husband was also immunized, but nevertheless was also concerned about his own exposure to a patient with the flu whose only symptom was fever.

This is typically when we see the flu peak each year. In fact, the Allegheny County Health Department has noticed the increased activity.

"Forty-four new influenza cases have been confirmed via positive lab cultures in the past two weeks, the highest level of activity so far this season and bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases for the season to 57 (54 Type A and 3 Type B), yet well below the 188 confirmed cases reported by this time last year," says the health department's web site.

http://www.achd.net/pr/news.html

The CDC has classified the state of Pennsylvania as having widespread flu activity.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm

So far, my husband hasn't shown any signs of the flu, and there haven't been any rumblings of a strain mismatch with this year's vaccine. Hopefully he's covered, especially since our newborn is in a vulnerable population. There has been some mention of certain flu strains not responding to certain standard anti-viral treatments this year.

So just a reminder to folks -- stay home if you're sick, cover your mouth when you cough, and wash your hands.