Health officials are telling Illinois residents to get their flu shots soon rather than later after the state’s first flu cases of the season were reported.
At the end of October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported no flu activity in the state of Illinois, but about one week later, at the start of November, the first cases were reported. Officials expect that number will likely climb heading into the winter months.
“Flu cases have just started in the Chicagoland area,” Dr. Sameer Patel, an infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children’s Hospital, said Thursday. “They are going to climb. It general peaks around January but it can last through the winter and early spring.”
Thursday morning, congressional leaders in Washington grilled federal health officials about the country’s preparedness for this year’s flu season. Centers for Disease Control experts said the flu shot wasn’t as effective as it should be after a new strain of influenza started circulating, but experts said even a less effective vaccine could prevent hospitalizations and deaths, particularly among young people and children.
But this year’s vaccine is different and has been adjusted to include the strain that caused many of the flu cases reported last year, health officials said.
“We know the best way to be protected against the flu is to get vaccinated and for the past few months we’ve been distributing vaccine and administering vaccine throughout [Chicago]and so we feel like we are prepared for this flu season,” said Julie Morita with the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Flu can be a serious illness, particularly for young children, senior citizens and those with such chronic conditions as asthma, heart disease or diabetes. On average thousands die each year from the flu, a number that can fluctuate depending on which strain is circulating. The CDC has estimated from a low of 3,000 deaths to a high of 49,000 between the 1976-1977 and 2006-2007 seasons.
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“Influenza kills 30,000 people a year in the U.S. and it is an entirely preventable disease,” said Dr. Claudia Fegan with Cook County Health & Hospital Systems.
Health officials encouraged area residents to go to Chicagoflushots.org to find a clinic closes to them.
