Clark County’s director of public health, Dr. Alan Melnick, can’t tell you a whole lot yet about this flu season.
But he can tell you it’s not too late to get your flu shot. In fact, he recommends you do it now.
“For those of us who are not infected yet and haven’t gotten the shot, you should get the flu shot now,” Melnick said.
Getting vaccinated is imperative, because Clark County moved a step closer to active flu season after entering the new year. According to the Clark County Weekly Influenza Update, issued by Public Health, the influenza positivity rose to 11.4 percent last week. It was the first time this season the county’s influenza positivity rate registered above 10 percent, which is the threshold for triggering active flu season.
Public Health won’t consider the flu season to be active until that threshold has been crossed for two straight weeks.
“That’s likely to happen next week,” Melnick said.
Generally, once positivity rates start rising, they keep rising until flu season begins to taper off in the spring.
Cowlitz County also rose above 10 percent — to 10.3 percent — in the latest report. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the national influenza positivity rate at 13.7 percent for the last week of 2018, while Washington reported 7.1 percent for the same week.
This is the latest Clark County has crossed the 10 percent threshold since 2016. That year, Clark County didn’t enter active flu season until the end of January, and stayed above the 10 percent threshold until spring.
The last two flu seasons, Clark County has entered active flu season closer to November and December. So far 97 percent of the positive tests have been for influenza Type A, which causes more serious complications and symptoms than influenza B, Melnick said.
The 2017-18 flu season was one of the worst in the U.S., according to the CDC. There were about 80,000 estimated deaths, including 180 children — the most since the CDC started using its latest surveillance procedures. About 80 percent of the children who died didn’t receive a flu shot.
In Clark County, the flu killed at least 14 people last season. Melnick said it’s still too early to tell how effective this season’s flu shot has been.
“I wish I had a crystal ball,” Melnick said. “I still can’t tell how severe this flu season will be.”
