Health officials declare flu an epidemic

By Delthia Ricks
Newsday

	MARK HUMPHREY / AP Kaia Page, 5 weeks old, cries as blood is drawn as she is tested for flu symptoms at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. The emergency room has seen a sharp increase in flu patients.
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The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging people not to overwhelm emergency rooms because most influenza infections can be treated successfully at home.

The number of flu cases technically has not surpassed the threshold to declare an official epidemic in the United States.

But CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who long had avoided using the "e" word, yesterday called the nationwide influenza outbreak a bona fide epidemic. "From a practical perspective, given the number of people affected, it's fair to characterize it as an epidemic," she said.

Deaths among youngsters helped influence the government decision to classify the outbreak that way. Calling the 42 deaths sobering and worrisome, Gerberding said mathematical models suggest that in the 1990s, 92 children younger than age 5 probably died of influenza annually. Because influenza is not tracked precisely, there is no way of knowing for sure, she said.

Gerberding added it is still too early to predict how the next few months will play out. Flu season usually peaks in January and runs through March. The majority of cases reported nationwide have been attributed to A-Fujian, a more severe strain described as an H3N2, a reference to the infectious protein coat encasing viral genes.

Influenza can become deadly in adults and children who have other medical problems. Gerberding noted that 40 percent of the youngsters who have died this flu season had an underlying problem.

With schools closing for the winter break, influenza's spread is likely to slow over the next two weeks. "The break is a good thing because of the spread in schools. So if someone gets influenza now, they'll have it at home with their family and not with 30 of their friends," said Dr. Lorre Rubin, director of pediatric infectious diseases at Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

He added that bacterial infections can complicate the flu, causing pneumonia in vulnerable people. Such is often the case in those older than 65, Rubin said, the largest population to succumb annually to flu complications.

The CDC, meanwhile, activated its emergency-operations center in Atlanta. The emergency center is designed to enhance communications between state health departments and the CDC.

Background information was provided by The Washington Post.

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