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 There’s no vaccine yet for coronavirus, which so far has infected 12
people and resulted in no deaths in the United States.
But two Springfield doctors say flu shots offer useful – though not
perfect – protection against influenza, which has caused at least 22
million flu illnesses this season and 12,000 deaths nationwide.
Promoting awareness about the coronavirus is a good idea, especially
as new information emerges in Asia, said Dr. Steven O’Marro, a
Springfield Clinic infectious-disease specialist. But influenza,
which appears to be peaking in central Illinois as it normally does
in February, poses a “much more immediate threat,” he said.
Dr. Janak Koirala, chief of infectious diseases at Southern Illinois
University School of Medicine in Springfield, said flu “causes a lot
more mortality in the United States than I think the coronavirus is
going to cause.”
With more than half of American adults not getting a flu shot each
year, and four in 10 children going unvaccinated, the doctors said
they wish flu shots and other measures to cut down on transmission
would receive as much attention in the news media as the new Chinese
coronavirus.
“This coronavirus is mysterious and scary, so it captures people’s
attention,” said O’Marro, medical director of infection prevention
at Memorial Medical Center.
O’Marro said he and other medical experts aren’t discounting the
coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan in central China.
More than 43,000 people, most of them in mainland China — a country
of 1.4 billion people — have tested positive for the respiratory
virus, and there have been at least 1,100 deaths worldwide.
In the United States, 12 people have tested positive for the
coronavirus, while results are pending for approximately 70 other
people, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The positive cases include two in Illinois – a
Chicago-area man in his 60s who is the spouse of the first confirmed
travel-related case in the state.
It appears the coronavirus in Asia is causing the worst
complications for people with reduced immune systems, such as the
elderly, and the death rate among infected people may be as high as
2% to 3%, according to news reports and the latest estimates.
That death rate would be several times higher than the death rate
for influenza, which is less than 1%, but experts disagree on the
coronavirus’ fatality rate as more information emerges on the total
number of infected individuals.
The risk of infection by coronavirus remains low in Illinois, said
Gina Carnduff, Memorial Health System’s director of infection
prevention.
Meanwhile, flu activity is considered high in Illinois, one of 48
states with that designation for the week ending Feb. 1, according
to the CDC.
Positive flu tests since early October for patients of Memorial
Medical Center and at Memorial ExpressCare clinics and Memorial
Physician Services offices in Sangamon County rose from 154 cases on
Jan. 25 to 429 cases on Feb. 1 and 639 cases on Feb. 8.
Thirty-six of this season’s positive cases have resulted in hospital
admissions, Carnduff said.
In Illinois and Springfield, this flu season appears to be worse
than last year’s season and more like the 2017-18 season, though
there were more hospitalizations in 2017-18, she said.
Elderly people and others with reduced immune systems were the
hardest hit by flu-related medical complications, she said.
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It’s unknown so far whether this season’s flu vaccine formula is less effective
than usual, Carnduff said, but Memorial has seen more children and young adults
testing positive for flu this season than in typical years.
The Type A flu strain that appears to be causing the most severe illnesses this
year is more aggressive than what doctors usually see in patients, Koirala said.
The effectiveness of the flu vaccine – its ability to prevent infection – can
range from 30% to 70%, while vaccines for other illnesses such as measles, mumps
and polio are successful more than 90% of the time, he said.
People often overlook the flu vaccine’s ability to reduce the severity of
flu-related illness, or they falsely believe it can cause flu, Koirala said.
That may be because viruses other than influenza can cause flu-like symptoms, he
said.
The CDC says 45.3% of American adults received flu shots in the 2018-19 season.
The nationwide figure represented an increase of 8 percentage points from the
previous season.
In Illinois, 41.3% of adults got shots in 2018-19 – the eight-worst rate among
the states – though 67.4% of Illinoisans 65 and older got shots, based on CDC
statistics.
O’Marro said many of the hospitalized patients he has treated for the flu this
season weren’t vaccinated.
Some of them have “listened to people who are famous” who have criticized
vaccines in general because of unwarranted concerns that vaccines cause autism,
he said. “And some people are just anti-vaccination,” he said.
Most people don’t realize the value of vaccines over the decades, he said.
“These people don’t live with their relatives, who have since died, who had to
deal with typhoid fever and tetanus and diphtheria and smallpox, polio, measles
and mumps,” O’Marro said. “The influenza vaccination saves lives.”
Carnduff said it’s not too late to get a flu shot and added that it takes two
weeks for the flu vaccine to ramp up a person’s immune system.
“The vaccine is not the end-all-be-all,” she said. “It’s coupled with those
general protection measures, as well: Practicing good hand hygiene, avoiding
those people who are sick, and not touching your eyes, nose or mouth with
unwashed hands.”
Springfield resident Lindsay Faulker, a divorced mother of six, one of whom is
deceased, said she and her children have come down with the flu after getting
flu shots in the past, but she suspects they didn’t get as sick as they would
have without the shots.
After waking up with a fever of almost 104 degrees at 1 a.m. Feb. 3, Faulkner’s
1-year-old daughter, January Horn, was diagnosed with the flu but was feeling
better later in the week after several oral doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu
prescribed by Dr. Nicole Florence of Memorial Physician Services.
January received the recommended two-dose regimen of influenza vaccine for young
children in the fall, her mother said.
“The statistics really amaze me on how many people don’t get the flu vaccine,”
said Faulkner, 40, a manager at the Illinois Department of Transportation. “It’s
a precaution. It’s an extra step to protect yourself.”
Faulkner said her advice to other parents is: “Do what you feel is right for
your family. I don’t tell people to be vaccinated. More than anything, wash your
hands and cover your cough.”
[Memorial Health Systems] |
