March Flu Madness

Mid-March is normally basketball season, but this March in Wisconsin seems to also be flu season.  While others are happily tracking college teams, I will admit to following sickness trends. Not exactly a wildly popular topic of conversation, but if your area is anything like ours this week, there aren’t enough healthy people to host a cocktail hour regardless, unless it is at the nearest Urgent Care.  Today, at my children’s middle school, there were over 150 kids home from school due to illness.  A record high for the year, and a number that has steadily climbed since the beginning of the week, when 100 kids stayed home from school and over 20 were sent home with fevers. For a parent of a typical kid, like my 8th grader, the number of sick kids in the school would not even hit my radar.  However, I keep close tabs on the statistics because it matters to my daughter, who is significantly immunocompromised.  My daughter is home this week, not because she is sick (knock on wood), but because we are afraid that she will get sick and as a result, we monitor illness in our community and her world very closely.

After I hung up with the school nurse today, I took a step back and realized that the reason I am fearful is because I know how serious the flu can be and because I am tracking the illness trends with a singular focus--stopping the spread of illness in our community so that it doesn’t end up in my home.  Without my unique perspective as germ patrol for a kiddo who lacks her own complete set of germ fighters, I am honestly not sure if I would have known how important it is to get a flu shot.  If I am being truthful, I am not sure if I would have known how very important it is to keep my kids home from school for at least 24 hours AFTER they are fever-free to stop the spread of illness.   Like many people I know, I may have even skipped the flu shot altogether. After all, flu vaccines are optional and any kid will tell you that shots are the pits.  But, to be fair, being immune compromised isn't a choice and counting on the public to get vaccinated to stay healthy is even more painful.

While the flu vaccine’s effectiveness varies by year, the flu vaccine is the single best way to prevent the flu, and if you are healthy, consider yourself lucky, as the flu vaccine works the best among healthy adults and older children.  With the flu vaccine, like other vaccines, the protection varies widely depending on who is being vaccinated (in addition to how well the flu vaccine is matched with circulating viruses).  This means that older people and people with chronic illnesses, or compromised immune systems, like my daughter, might develop less immunity than healthy kids and adults after vaccination.   We are really fortunate that, according to the CDC, the  viruses in the vaccine are a good match for the circulating viruses this year.  This year, the predominant virus strain this season is the influenza A (H3N2) strain, and the estimated effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing illness caused by that strain was 43%. The vaccine's estimated effectiveness against the influenza B virus was 73%. That amounts to overall protection of 48% from the flu vaccine, according to the CDC.  While I understand that 48% may not be a good shooting statistic for your favorite basketball team, it actually does a lot of good for preventing the spread of illness in our community and potentially making the flu less severe if you do come down with the flu.  While it is late to vaccinate this year, contrary to a popular misconception, it is actually never too late.

Dr. Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist, recently commented on the flu vaccine on CNN.com, "It is very late. If you haven't gotten vaccinated and you haven't gotten sick yet, run -- do not walk -- this afternoon. You should get your flu vaccine, because it does take 10 days to two weeks for maximum protection."

I have heard people say that they choose not to get the influenza vaccine because it gave them the illness in the past.  If you hear someone talking about getting the flu from the flu shot, please keep in mind that it takes about two weeks for the flu shot to become effective and some people are exposed in that time and get sick anyway.  Please know that although the shot may trigger soreness and a slight fever, the minor discomfort from the flu shot pales in comparison to the flu. That discomfort is far different than influenza, where you are typically in bed sick for 7 to 10 days.  Aside from feeling awful, influenza has a very scary side that I would like you to consider.  

The predominant strain this year is Influenza A, (aka H3N2), a more serious form of the flu.  According to board-certified infectious disease specialist Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “When we see a flu season dominated by H3N2, it tends to be more severe.  We see more flu hospitalizations and deaths.”   While most people associate the flu with a few missed days of school or work, the flu can be incredibly serious. According to the lead investigator for the US Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network, Brendan Flannery, the 2016-2017 flu season “looks on track to be a moderately severe H3N2 season.”   When I hear the school tell me this morning that 150 (otherwise healthy) kids are absent due to illness, my heart sinks because these kids have the benefit of normally functioning immune systems to protect them and they are still absent, feverish and ill in record numbers.  For the week ending on March 4th, Wisconsin, like many states, is still listed on the CDC’s weekly report as having “widespread” influenza.  Flu season can be downright frightening for families like mine, who worry about the more serious complications from the flu if it were to impact my child.  According to Flannery, this flu season “seems like it's similar to the 2012-2013 season, which was a season with millions of cases and about 60,000 hospitalizations and 2,000 deaths."   

I recognize that following the coverage of March Madness is much more fun than tracking the flu, but when more people are protected against the flu, everyone wins.  Yes, I’d rather be reading about the Badgers and coming down with Bracket Flu, but such is life.  The flu is something we have to deal with year-round, as it is one of the most prolific infectious diseases.  So, while our school is busy sanitizing and fielding calls from parents of sick kids, I thought I would do my part and, on behalf of my daughter,  urge you to take the flu shots and flu season seriously.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/health/flu-shot-effective-cdc-study/