Traditional flu season fizzles

By Randy Griffith

Did the H1N1 virus overpower this year’s seasonal flu?

Or was the H1N1 strain a seasonal flu that was out of season?

While experts are still pondering the questions, one thing is clear: The traditional December-through-April flu season never really materialized this year.

Instead, the H1N1, or swine flu, raised alarms by appearing in March last year, peaking first in May and then again in October.

Not only was the timing unusual, but H1N1’s mortality patterns were frightening. Although overall mortality rates were well below seasonal flu averages, many deaths were among children and pregnant women. In fact, 90 percent of deaths were patients under 65. In a normal season, those over 65 account for 90 percent of the deaths.

Extensive flu shot campaigns last fall pushed both H1N1 and seasonal vaccines.

But by mid-December, reports of flu-like symptoms had dropped to off-season levels nationally, and had not increased significantly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

“We didn’t really have the traditional flu season,” said Dr. Louis A. Schenfeld, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown.

Schenfeld believes the H1N1 became this year’s seasonal flu.

“It is just a new strain that came earlier than usual,” Schenfeld said.

“The season, don’t forget, is a moving target. Things just happen.”

The new strain hasn’t gone away, CDC spokesman Jeff Dimond said.

“H1N1 is still circulating at low levels around the country,” Dimond said, noting Alabama, Georgia and some other southern states are reporting “a slight uptick” in H1N1 this spring.

Although there were scattered cases of the expected strains of seasonal flu over the winter, most tests came back as H1N1, he continued.

“It is one of the odd things of biology,” Dimond said. “It crowded out the seasonal flu this year. The one thing we know about flu is it is unpredictable.”

And while mutations in the influenza virus require scientists to formulate a new vaccine each year, the H1N1 hasn’t changed since it appeared in March 2009. Antigens for the H1N1 virus will be included in next year’s seasonal flu shot, Dimond said.

Increased public awareness, fueled by H1N1 fears, may have helped corral seasonal flu this year, Dimond suggested. A record number of people received flu shots.

“The public health message got out: Wash your hands and don’t spread it. Don’t try to prove how tough you are. Stay home if you are sick,” Dimond said.

“The American public took that to heart. We had a strong public health message. We had a very good response.”

But the director of Memorial Medical Center’s disaster and emergency medicine program is not convinced that the CDC can take much credit for a mild season.

“I was a naysayer from the beginning,” Dr. Michael Allswede said. “There was a clear lack of serious influenza. We had a milder flu season this year.”

The H1N1 response was overblown, Allswede said.

“This was a social perception crisis more than a medical crisis,” he said. “Flu comes and flu goes. This year we had a huge amount of money spent on vaccine that was probably not worth it.”

As far as people heeding the prevention advice, Allswede had this to say:

“Quarantine has never stopped a flu epidemic. Spanish Flu of 1918 crossed from the British lines to the German lines in less than a day. There are no more socially distant people than soldiers on the front lines pointing guns at each other.”

Source: The Tribune Democrat