GILROY
– The flu season this winter hit early and powerfully, crowding
doctors’ offices and emptying classrooms, but overall, cases of
influenza were no more severe than a typical year, reports the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
GILROY – The flu season this winter hit early and powerfully, crowding doctors’ offices and emptying classrooms, but overall, cases of influenza were no more severe than a typical year, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The percentage of doctor visits and deaths related to the flu were above average, but other recent flu seasons appear to have been worse, according to a study by the CDC.
For example, a potent flu strain made the 1999-2000 season worse than this year.
Despite the to-do late last year, after the start of the new year, much of the flu panic locally quieted down.
“It seemed like it was an early flu season, so the demand died down,” said Joy Alexio, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, which was one agency administering the vaccine.
According to preliminary CDC data, this flu season started early (in October), peaked between late November and December, and declined rapidly through February.
As the holidays were nearing, schools and health care agencies in Gilroy took the hit, as supplies of the flu vaccine in Gilroy dwindled – as they did across the country.
Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy reported running out of the vaccine and the health department canceled flu vaccination clinics and directed what little vaccine it had to the most needy patients.
“The public health (department) supply was limited to those at risk, it was not for those in the general population,” Alexio said. “We had such a limited supply, we couldn’t make it more available.”
The county health department’s supply was critically low in mid-December after it gave out more than 13,000 doses.
The state and federal governments provided the additional shipments, which were given to at-risk populations, including the elderly, young children and pregnant women.
Health officials said the virus killed 142 children this year.
That number cannot be compared to previous years because doctors are not required to report children’s flu deaths to health authorities.
The outbreak did not appear to be especially deadly for children, at least for those younger than 5, officials said.
Nevertheless, schools were hit hard by flu-related absences for both students and teachers. Gilroy Unified School District attendance was more than 2 percent below expectations, which Attendance Officer Frank Valadez attributed largely to the flu scare.
It appears the flu season is over.
For the second week in a row, no state has had more than sporadic activity, according to the CDC’s latest data, from the week ending March 27.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
