Even though the flu virus continues to sicken people across Clark County, relief may be on the horizon.
Flu activity in the county declined recently for the first time since November. Hospital admissions of patients with the flu have gone down. And medical offices, while still busy, are reporting decreasing numbers of patients with flu symptoms.
“Things are looking like we may have peaked, but I can’t tell for sure,” said Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County Public Health director and county health officer, during a county board of health meeting Wednesday.
“Even if we’re on the downswing, we’re still at increased activity,” Melnick added. “If you haven’t gotten a flu shot, it’s not too late. Flu season is going to go on for a while.”
During the second week of January, the most recent data available, 35 percent of flu tests in the county came back positive. The drop followed two weeks of record-high flu positivity rates: 41 percent and 44 percent.
If local flu activity follows historical trends, it will begin to decline but remain elevated for another six to eight weeks.
So far this flu season, Clark County Public Health has recorded seven flu deaths: a boy younger than 10, a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s and four people 70 or older. Five of the seven had received the flu vaccine. All of the deaths are among people considered at high-risk for complications: young children, adults 65 or older and those with underlying health conditions, Melnick said.
Last flu season, Clark County had 26 flu deaths.
Severe season
Earlier this week, Clark County Fire District 6 announced it was requiring its responders to wear droplet-isolation masks to every call. The masks are like those worn by providers in hospitals and medical clinics.
The district issued the directive in response to the severe flu season and prevalence of a flu strain — influenza A H3N2 — associated with more severe illness and hospitalizations.
Vancouver hospitals were seeing higher-than-usual rates of admissions for the flu earlier this month, but those numbers appear to be falling.
At Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, flu admission rates have dropped dramatically, from 17 percent two weeks ago to just 2 percent on Wednesday, said hospital spokeswoman Kelly Love.
At PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, the flu admission rate has remained fairly steady the past week, accounting for about 5 to 6 percent of admissions. Two weeks ago, 16 percent of people admitted to the hospital were there with the flu, said hospital spokesman Randy Querin.
The number of staff calling in sick at PeaceHealth Southwest was down to just eight employees on Wednesday — a typical number — compared with more than double that number two weeks ago, Querin said. At Legacy, illness among staff hasn’t been an issue, Love said.
Pat Nuzzo, communications director for Vancouver Public Schools, said in an email that there has been no noticeable decline in student attendance from last winter to this winter. “The change is roughly a percentage point or less whether one looks at a specific grade, across an entire level (like elementary grades), or for the entire district,” her email said.
Providers at The Vancouver Clinic and Kaiser Permanente have been busy but say flu activity seems to be finally declining.
“We’re still getting positive tests every day, but it seems to be less,” said Dr. Armida Nunez-Finley, co-chair of the urgent care department at The Vancouver Clinic.
“We got hit early and hard,” she said, “but hopefully it will start to taper off.”
