Hospitals see first signs of flu season

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Dec. 1, 2003 | 10:59 a.m.

Many Las Vegans won't be enjoying the holidays this season because they'll be sick in bed with the flu.

Medical experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict the winter months will bring the worst flu season in decades and local emergency rooms this weekend saw an influx in people suffering with flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever and headache.

Lorri, who asked to be referred to only by her first name, got a preview of the misery that flu season could bring Friday as she smoked a cigarette outside a packed emergency room at University Medical Center.

Lorri was waiting for her 23-year-old son, Noah Wiess, to be treated for a 103-degree fever, vomiting and chills. He had spent Thanksgiving sick in bed, she said.

"He feels lousy," she said. "When you're sick, you're sick."

Lorri said she had been at the emergency room for four hours and her son had only been taken back to triage. She said she doesn't buy reports that this flu season would bring a worse strain of the virus.

"They say it's bad this year. It's bad every year," she said.

Barbara Roth said she expected to wait at least two hours to see a doctor at Southwest Medical Associates' Urgent Care on Rancho Drive, where at least 15 people waited to see a doctor late Friday.

Roth said she spent Thanksgiving suffering with flu-like symptoms she believed were the beginnings of a sinus infection. The symptoms included a hacking cough, congestion and a sinus headache, she said.

"I feel just terrible," she said. "I should have gone to the doctor yesterday but I didn't want to ruin my Thanksgiving."

While it may seem like Las Vegans are sicker than usual this season, Clark County is about average when it comes to the number of people suffering with influenza-like symptoms, Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Health District, said.

As of Friday, in Clark County about 2.55 percent of patients who visited their doctors suffered from symptoms such as dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and head and body aches, Sizemore said.

The national average, according to the CDC, is 2.5 percent, she said.

Flu season generally begins in November and can last until March, according to the CDC.

Still, national and local statistics generally track only cases of people suffering from influenza-like symptoms, not confirmed cases of the flu.

The actual virus can only be confirmed with buckle swabs that are laboratory tested and doctors rarely prescribe the procedure, Sizemore said.

"So we probably have more cases than we know of," she said.

Sizemore said the health district had its first confirmed case of the flu about two weeks ago, which means the virus is sure to spread.

Confirming that a patient has the flu, however, does not necessarily change the way the patient is treated, she said.

About 114,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized and about 36,000 die each year because of the flu, according to the CDC's website.

Most who die are 65 years and older, but infants are also likely to be hospitalized because of the flu, according to the website.

Michael and Barbara Levine, an elderly couple who spoke to the Sun on Friday, said they are keeping their fingers crossed in hopes that the virus will pass them by this season.

"We got flu shots," Michael Levine said. "This is the first year we've done it in a while. But we were told it would get progressively worse this year."

Michael Levine said he and his wife usually get sick at least once each year. The couple got the shot two weeks ago.

While they could still come down with the flu this season, Michael Levine said, he feels comfortable knowing they did their part.

"It's some relief," he said. "If nothing else, at least I got it."