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The H3N2 flu virus is known as the hospitalizer. Here’s why


Stay home. Don’t go to work. Keep sick children out of school.

That’s some of the stern advice Los Angeles County health officials offered on Wednesday to people and their loved ones suffering from coughs, sneezes, aches and fevers as a result of the flu circulating at elevated levels throughout the region. Health officials also continued to urge the public to get vaccinated.

The advice came a day after a state epidemiologist told reporters that this could be the worst influenza season since 2009, when the H1N1 or Swine flu pandamic killed 12,469 people nationwide.

At a news conference at their downtown Los Angeles office, county public health officials said it was not too late to get the flu vaccine, since they said it perfectly protects against three of four of the strains circulating. They also said that because the flu season started a month earlier than usual and its peak has yet to be identified, the bug could circulate for a longer period of time.

“We’ve seen an elevation in the number of outbreaks that have been reported to us from nursing homes and other congregate living facilities,” said Dr. Sharon Balter, director of acute communicable disease control for Los Angeles County. “All this points to an earlier and somewhat more severe flu season this year than last year.”

The numbers tell the story best, Balter added:

•There have 36 deaths in Los Angeles County, compared to 17 last year. Those figures do not include Pasadena and Long Beach, which have their own health departments. Both departments have reported no deaths so far this season.

•The number of emergency department visits of people complaining of flu like symptoms is 130 percent higher compared to the same time last year.

•The number of people who are testing positive for influenza is at 50 percent compared to 17 percent last year.

•The circulation of Influenza A H3N2 means more hospitalizations and deaths.

That last point is what concerns public health officials most because its the strain that’s challenging this year’s vaccine, which doesn’t fully protect against H3N2.

Here’s why H3N2 is most concerning:

Influenza A H3N2 is what’s known as “a non-human influenza virus that normally circulates in pigs,” according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2011, H3N2 was detected, and it turned out to be a whopper, because it contained genes from avian, swine and human virus, as well as the 2009 H1N1 gene, according to the CDC. Infected pigs can spread it to humans in the same way humans get it from each other: coughs and sneezes and infected droplets that are inhaled.

In general, influenza viruses are always mutating, but the H3N2 virus is especially cunning, some scientists say. It’s not an alien shape shifter, but some scientists say it mutates so quickly so that vaccine makers can’t quite catch up to it.

While H3N2 can cause more severe illness among those age 65 and older and people with underlying medical conditions, it poses a threat to children, according to the CDC, because children born after 2001 have little to no immunity against it.

There have been no infant or young child deaths in Los Angeles County, health officials said, but among the 36 people who have died so far, the mean age was 74 years old.

So why doesn’t the California Health Department report flu-related deaths among those 65 and older?

On Tuesday, state officials said there were 27 flu-related deaths in California, not including those who are 65 years or older. Meanwhile, San Diego County reported 91 deaths total. The discrepency is startling.

California health officials don’t report deaths of those 65 and older, because they are not required to, and they are most focused on how the virus acts on children and those deemed middle aged, said Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhhauser, Los Angeles County’s interim health officier.

“Here in LA County, we’re a pretty resource rich community, so it’s not that much of a burden,” to get that information from laboratories, physicians, and hospitals, Gunzenhauser said.

“We want to know all the deaths in Los Angeles County,” he added.

“We do have a lot of elderly and we have a lot of nursing homes,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “It’ really is important for us to understand the full spectrum of how influenza activity is affecting our residents.”

Los Angeles County still offers free flu vaccines to those who qualify. For more information, call the county information line at 2-1-1.

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