Flu cases in El Paso County up this season with over triple hospital admissions
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- El Paso County Public Health Department is reporting 45 hospital admissions for the flu since late September, more than tripling last year's 14 hospitalizations.
Dr. Nicole Carbonell , who works for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, says she's concerned for the higher admission rates.
“It definitely alarms me because people don’t realize how sick you can get with the flu," she said. "They think ‘Oh it’s just another cold’ but it’s not. People get really wiped out.”
The CDC and local doctors say the majority of patients they've seen so far are sick with Influenza B, which is unusual during this time of year.
“Very few upper respiratory symptoms like cough and very few GI symptoms," Carbonell said. "And so it's really the feeling of being completely wiped out that's bringing people to the hospital."
Cary Vogrin, a spokesperson for UCHealth, says their four hospitals in the Pikes Peak region have received a total of 23 hospitalizations this season, with 69% of them for the type B virus as well.
Doctors at Penrose-St. Francis Health Services are reporting 101 people with flu cases and nine hospital admissions so far.
“We’ve almost doubled what we had last year at this time for the start of the flu season," said nurse Joan Strauch, an infection prevention specialist for St. Francis Medical Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say seasonal influenza activity in the United States has been elevated for five weeks and continues to increase.
In the latest CDC report, an estimated 1,300 deaths were from the flu and at least 2.6 million cases of the illness were reported this season.
While a vaccine's efficiency can vary each year depending on how many people get the shots and the type of strains used, doctors say a vaccination is still the best prevention for getting sick.
“People that are vaccinated rarely get the flu and if they do they’re symptoms are so much less severe," Carbonell said. "They’re so much less likely to get hospitalized and to have respiratory failure and other dangerous complications."
