Maryland catches a bad bug

Flu is now widespread throughout state

There were 1,384 lab-confirmed influenza cases in Maryland from Sept. 30 through last week.

The Maryland outbreak showed up in December, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC bumped Maryland up to widespread status the week of Feb. 2, meaning the flu was reported in at least half of the state’s regions.

Flu is now widespread in 44 states, according to the CDC.

The sudden burst of sickness is partly because this season’s vaccine wasn’t a catch-all for the different strains of flu, health officials and health care providers say.

The vaccine’s effectiveness is ‘‘questionable, at best,” according to Dr. Michael Sauri, chief of infection control at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville.

‘‘And since we’re about in our fourth week of the flu in our community, we will probably have another several weeks of individuals with flu,” he said, adding that Shady Grove is seeing twice as many flu cases than it did last year.

The hospital saw 317 patients for influenza since Oct. 1 and admitted 8 percent of them for hospital care. About one-third of those patients were adults.

Washington Adventist Hospital’s emergency department saw four to five flu cases per day last week.

Vaccinations are not always failsafe, doctors said. Flu strains can mutate and predictions about the season’s flu strain can turn out to be wrong. But this year’s flu shot missed two strains showing up in ERs throughout the state and county.

Dr. Robert Rothstein, head of Suburban Hospital’s emergency department in Bethesda, estimated 10 to 20 percent of flu patients at the hospital had been vaccinated this season.

‘‘What the CDC is reporting is there are circulating [flu] strains that are not a 100 percent match” with this year’s flu shot, said Greg Reed, program manager for the Maryland Center for Immunization at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. ‘‘However, the flu vaccine is still effective and is providing some protection against some strains.”

The state’s public health wings buy only about 10 percent of the flu vaccinations in the state, so it’s impossible to tell how many shots were administered this season, Reed said. The other 90 percent of flu shots are handled by the private sector — doctors, clinics and pharmacies or through employer-provided flu shot programs.

Combined with winter ailments and accidents, the flu is putting extra pressure on already busy emergency departments.

‘‘It’s really starting to tick up,” Rothstein said. ‘‘February has been the busiest month we’ve ever had.”

Rothstein said Suburban Hospital is seeing 15 to 20 patients with flu-related symptoms per day. He said ‘‘older people” are the most frequent flu patients.

Montgomery General Hospital has also seen an increase, according to the hospital’s director of marketing and planning, Nikki Yeager. She said in recent weeks numbers have climbed for flu cases, with an additional 20-30 cases per day.

Baltimore Washington Medical Center has reported about 155 cases to the county’s health department, spokeswoman Allison Eatough said.

The hospital is seeing five to seven flu cases each day, she said.

‘‘When it starts out as a lighter flu incidence in the fall, then a lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s not bad. I don’t need [a flu shot] this year,” said Cindy Edwards, immunization program manager for Montgomery County. ‘‘I think that’s probably part of what happened.”

Not all area hospitals have seen a dramatic increase in recent flu cases however. After seeing an increase in January, Holy Cross hospital in Silver Spring has seen a flat-lining of cases during the first two weeks of February.

‘‘People must be taking their runny noses and going somewhere else,” said Yolanda Gaskins, a spokesperson for the hospital.

Reed said that people in high-risk groups who haven’t yet been vaccinated ‘‘definitely need to get a flu shot.”

Sauri disagreed.

‘‘It’s too late now, I think,” Sauri said. He explained that flu outbreaks typically last about six weeks. Since Montgomery County’s outbreak is on its third week and flu shots take two weeks to kick in, people are ‘‘probably not going to benefit from getting the vaccine at the time when influenza is circulating in your community.”

Sauri said flu shots could help in the future, though, by potentially offering resistance to avian influenza.

People 65 years or older, pregnant women and children and adults with chronic health problems are considered high risk.

Health care providers recommend drinking plenty of fluids, washing hands, shielding coughs and sneezes, and taking aspirin or Tylenol for fevers and aches.

Staff writer Bradford Pearson contributed to this report.

Still timeto vaccinate

The Adventist HealthCare network has vaccinations available on an individual basis by calling 301-315-3140.

Montgomery County residents can call 240-777-1050 to find clinics offering flu shots.