Sick and Tired

A chest-burning strain of flu has its clammy grip on Valley residents, and the worst of the hacking cough, body aches and sweaty chills may be yet to come, health officials said.

With oodles of employees taking sick days and urgent care clinics seeing influenza patients by the dozens, high flu season arrived a month or two early.

That means, Dr. Jacob Offenberger said, that most people either will be immune to the strain by February when the outbreak normally peaks, or the peak will hit harder on those who have not had the flu. “It looks like it’s dragging it out and making a longer flu season,” said Offenberger, who has seen flu patients become half of his workload at Allergy and Asthma Relief Experts clinics in Studio City and Granada Hills in the past few weeks.

Staffers at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys estimated the emergency room has seen a 30% increase in visits because of the flu. As many as half of the patients at Los Angeles County Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar have gone into the emergency room complaining of flu-like symptoms, officials said. And a spokesman for Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center said the emergency room there has been averaging 2,400 visits per month since December, compared with the typical 1,700.

“Every day we’re just swamped with patients,” said Shirley Chapman, an emergency medical technician at West Oaks Family Practice Urgent Care in Canoga Park. “I’ve been here 13 years and I think that this is the worst year ever.” Before the bug hit, the County Department of Health Services said in flu pamphlets that the “good news” was that the A Sydney strain attacking Californians now was expected and that vaccines were prepared especially for it.

But not enough people take flu vaccines to protect an area from an outbreak. Dr. Carolyn Bridges, a flu epidemiologist with the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said about 10% of the population will be hit with the flu. Fewer than that take the vaccine, she said. So only one person in five is protected by vaccine or natural immunity.

Dan Beck needs no public-health warning or emergency-room statistics to tell him how potent A Sydney is.

“It’s been a lot easier finding a good parking space these days,” said Beck, a spokesman for Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park.

More and more employees are missing work while nursing the virus. Before the holidays, Beck had the flu. The company grants employees a customary week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. When they returned, “It was more of the same, consistent with other companies,” Beck said. “People were calling in sick. We’ve had canceled meetings and canceled conferences.”

As bleak as things may seem for those felled by the flu, a graver danger exists in the increased susceptibility to secondary infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

Valley hospitals and treatment centers reported higher numbers of patients seeking treatment in emergency rooms and being admitted for advanced infections.

“We’re just now getting the brunt of it,” Valley Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman Kellye Tarelka said. “It’s going to be continuing at least for the month of January.”

Of the most susceptible--children and older adults--it’s the older adults who seem to be overtaken most in the recent outbreak.

Vidal Galindo, a 67-year-old Pacoima woman, rushed to Olive View on Friday morning when asthma left her breathless. She had been short of breath before, but that morning was the worst. Diagnosis: the flu.

“I got here and everybody [in the waiting room] had the same thing,” she said, “flu, flu, flu.”

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Many Valley schools--usually fertile ground for passing bugs between students in close quarters--have been on winter holiday break for three weeks while the bug was pestering everyone else. But schools on year-round schedules have not reported high absentee rates as a result of the flu, said Tricia Chicagus, an LAUSD nursing field coordinator.

School nurses are required to notify the district when more than 10% of students stay home from school with the same illness. No schools in the Valley have reported such numbers in the past few weeks, Chicagus said.

And with three weeks away from the classroom for rest, Chicagus expects vacationing students to make a healthy return to school Monday.

For those who missed the vaccinations and become infected, two new prescription drugs are available--Relenza and Tamiflu. They can reduce the severity and duration of symptoms by preventing the multiplication of the virus within the body.

For example, a case of the flu that might last seven days could be over in one to two with the new drugs, said Dr. Surinder Puri of Valley Urgent Care Medical Group in Northridge.

But there is a catch. To be effective, the medications must be taken within 48 hours of the flu’s onset.

“Most people seek medical care when they get scared,” said Larry Clemens, coordinator of clinical pharmacy services at Valley Presbyterian Hospital. “People think, ‘I hope it’s not the flu, maybe it’s a cold’ and wait a couple of days. By the time you call the doctor, it’s too late” for the new drugs to be prescribed.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Flu Season

Influenza, like common cold viruses, is an airborne virus that can be caught anywhere.

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SYMPTOMS

Fever, usually sudden

Chills

Sweating

Aches and pains

Weakness

Headaches

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Common Cold

Fever

Chills

Stuffy nose

Sore throat, hoarseness

Aches and pains

Loss of appetite

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* A flu shot will not protect against the common cold.

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When to Call a Doctor

* if your symptoms are worsening

* if you have a high fever

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Source: Los Angeles County Department of Health Services