Flu season nearly over; official decries hysteria

The 2003-04 flu season is winding down in Maine as elsewhere, with less than 1 percent of reported visits to health care providers statewide last week related to flulike symptoms. At the season’s peak in December and January, about 8 percent of reported visits were flu-related.

State epidemiologist Kathleen Gensheimer said Thursday that predictions of a more severe season than normal have not been borne out.

Despite reports from Western states that this year’s flu strain was breaking out early and hitting hard, Gensheimer said, the outbreak in Maine was “not particularly noteworthy.”

“There’s a fine line between providing information and scaring people,” Gensheimer said. “This story was sensationalized all the way up the channels.”

Maine confirmed its first case in late November. The outbreak peaked in late December and early January – during public school vacation – and had just about run its course by last week. There is no way to know the actual number of cases, but outbreaks of flu were reported at 17 nursing homes and other institutions – not much different than in most years, according to Gensheimer.

Influenza kills about 38,000 Americans each year; mostly the elderly and chronically ill. Last year, about 70 Mainers died from flu or its complications. This year’s statistics will not be available for several more weeks.

Although several states reported deaths in otherwise healthy children, Gensheimer said no Maine children died from influenza this year.

“Compared to recent years, this was really no different in terms of intensity or timing,” Gensheimer said. “What was unique was the public attention and concern, almost hysteria.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began documenting an unexpected and virulent strain of the virus early in October. Although the vaccine didn’t include the specific A-Fujian strain that was sickening thousands, the CDC expanded its recommendations for getting vaccinated in hopes that the inoculation would provide some protection.

But vaccine was in short supply and could not meet the ramped-up demand, leading to long lines at public clinics and a spreading undercurrent of alarm. Media covered the flu season and the vaccine shortage intently.

The CDC now believes some immunity was conferred, although significantly less than if the A-Fujian strain had been included in the vaccine.

Emphasizing the seriousness of the annual flu season, Gensheimer said she hopes Mainers will learn from this year’s near-panic and make plans to get vaccinated next fall when the new vaccine becomes available.

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Bureau of Health where Gensheimer has her office, said Maine fared better than many states because it has generally high vaccination rates.

She said having the season peak during school break was no fun for children and their families, but helped keep the flu from spreading even more.

The big lesson from this year’s experience, Mills said, is that the United States should have a more organized public immunization program. “We are just about the only developed nation that doesn’t have a system to ensure an adequate supply of vaccine,” she said. “Instead, we’ve left it up to the market forces. The only vaccine the government is stockpiling – that we know of – is the smallpox vaccine, for a disease we haven’t seen in 25 years.

“[Flu] is a known disease that kills thousand of people every year,” Mills said. “It’s really quite appalling.”