Flu bug hits Clark County

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 11:32 a.m.

Flu shots

Clark County Health District officials say it's not too late to get a flu shot, even though the virus has gripped Southern Nevada. Officials say 1,700 doses are still available at the health district, 625 Shadow Lane, 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Call 383-1351.

Flu season has gripped Southern Nevada, spreading achy, feverish, coughing misery this week.

Clark County health officials said 11 cases of Type A influenza have been confirmed in the Las Vegas Valley. That's an official count of those diagnosed through blood tests -- a number that gives only a hint of the people in the valley wishing they were home in bed.

That number may also be enough to push the state from a ranking of sporadic outbreak to regional outbreak on the national scale, Nevada's immunization program manager Bob Salcido said. The highest level is a widespread outbreak.

"The sporadic level is the lowest activity reported to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta," he said. "If Clark County ups the ante, we may raise our category to the regional flu activity level next week."

Clark County for the first time this year is participating as a site for national flu surveillance. Designated schools, some government agencies and large employers report the incidents of illness, Bell said, and tests are done to confirm the virus.

Flu season began Oct. 1 and ends in March, but local hospitals, physicians and clinics started seeing an increase in flu-like symptoms last weekend and this week. There have been no significant cases reported in Northern Nevada, Salcido said.

Chills, fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, aches, a cough and a sore throat are symptoms of the flu. But thousands of other viruses mimic the flu's more serious symptoms.

Nationwide 20,000 people die each year from flu or complications from the virus.

In Clark County less than 3 percent of people seeking medical care displayed those flu-like symptoms during the last week of December, compared with 6.7 percent this week, Bell said.

None of those Las Vegans confirmed with the flu had received a vaccination, Clark County Health District epidemeologist Rose Bell said Wednesday, and the confirmed cases were all under 65 years old. Community efforts focus on immunizing those 65 and older.

"That suggests the vaccine is doing a lot of good, since immunizations are not recommended for people under 65," Bell said.

At Sunrise Hospital, the staff has been busy but not with the flu, spokeswoman Ann Lynch said. "We are seeing plenty of heart attacks, injuries and other problems, but no real increase from flu," she said.

It's a different story for the county's University Medical Center emergency room and clinics, UMC spokeswoman Trish Lampro said. "We're seeing people with upper-respiratory complaints," she said.

Miserable patients at UMC's Quick Care centers on Valley View Boulevard and at McCarran International Airport packed white-curtained examining rooms from dawn to dusk.

Dr. E. Craig Rucker said one in four people coming to the clinics displayed the flu symptoms. And all of the valley's emergency rooms are diverting patients to other less-busy hospitals because of the upswing in those seeking medical help.

"We are definitely seeing a lot of people with flu symptoms," said Rucker, an internal medical specialist.

People want to tough out the flu at home, but if they go to a doctor within the first 48 hours of symptoms, two new prescription drugs can help decrease the two to three weeks of suffering from influenza, Rucker said. Within the past two months, Tamiflu and Relenza have hit the market to combat the virus.

"We've had good results from these two drugs," he said. By the third day, however, the drugs are ineffective. "In this case, the less time spent getting to your doctor, the better," Rucker said.

For those who cannot afford to go to a physician or clinic, Rucker recommends increasing doses of vitamin C, zinc and chicken soup to help reduce the symptoms.

And for those who haven't gotten the flu yet, the Health District recommends an immunization. There are 1,700 doses still available at the Health District.

Despite the popular belief of some, getting a shot will not give people the flu, Peggy Hensley, immunization program coordinator, said. In the 1970s, when immunizations contained live flu virus, people did run fevers and ache for days, she said. Modern vaccines contain a dead virus, so they do not transmit the flu.

"Although people may say it's too late for the immunization to take effect, it's never too late," Hensley said.

This season's vaccine is effective until June 30.