Woodburn Independent Online

H1N1 virus attacking younger people

Healthy people in the 15 to 50 age bracket are getting seriously ill from swine flu

• By: Rachel Cavanaugh  
• Published: 11/10/2009 10:28:50 AM

WOODBURN — The H1N1 flu virus is causing hospitalizations in Marion County at increasing rates, health officials have said.
 
The number of cases has grown in recent weeks and, in some instances, is affecting otherwise healthy people.
 
“There continues to be a spike in cases locally,” said Woodburn Ambulance Service owner/paramedic Shawn Baird. “We do continue to have some pretty seriously ill people in the group that you wouldn’t normally expect to see them — the sort of healthy people between (ages) 15 and 50.
 
“Some patients require being on a ventilator. I think that’s one of the reasons health care providers and all of us in general are concerned. When otherwise healthy people in that sort of healthiest age bracket are sick enough to need to be on a ventilator, it’s pretty concerning. … It means you’re too weak to breathe on your own.”
 
Ken Hector, director of Silverton Hospital, agreed that incidence of the virus is rising.
 
“Until more recently, it was kind of quiet for us,” said Hector. “But in the last several weeks that has changed dramatically. Our incident command system is open to deal with this and we have seen a ramp-up in the number of people who are coming in for treatment.”
 
The last big strain like this virus was in 1918, Hector said, which was one of the “worst in recorded history.”
 
He noted it is following the pattern health experts predicted last year: it began to manifest itself in the spring but did not become widespread.
 
At the time, officials forecasted it would “hit a little bit” and then drop down. Then come fall, it would explode.
 
“That’s exactly what we’ve seen, not just here, but kind of on a worldwide basis,” said Hector. “That’s the way these kinds of disease processes work.”
 
So far, Marion County Health Department has reported 65 cases of H1N1.
 
However, Baird said the number of cases is actually “much higher” since only the sickest patients are actually hospitalized, which is how that number gets reported.
 
“Current data shows that between 8 to 10 percent of doctor visits are because of flu and between 10 to 30 percent of emergency room visits,” Baird said.
 
“Of course many people never seek medical care as well.
 
“In Marion County there are about 345 emergency room visits each day between three hospitals. If an average 20 percent are for flu, that would mean about 70 patients a day presenting with flu-like illness, presumed to be H1N1, just in the emergency rooms, not including people going to their regular doctor or staying home.”
 
Baird said one of his biggest concerns is that it is still early in the flu season. It may then be a “long and disruptive” season, which lasts until late spring.
 
When asked if he thought the H1N1 pandemic could turn in to be the widespread disaster feared by some, with numerous fatalities, he said it is still unclear.
 
“I think nobody’s willing to say yet,” said Baird. “I think what we’re finding is that it’s easily transmissible and rapidly transmits. For the people who it hits hard, it’s hitting really hard. That’s not to say that it’s wiping out a huge percentage of the people who get it. It’s just that for those that get it badly, it’s really bad.”
 
Baird noted that regular seasonal flu kills about 35,000 people each year in the U.S. He said the H1N1 numbers by comparison are not that large. The concern, however, is who it is affecting. It is rare to find a virus that affects healthy, young people so severely.
 
Baird said he is not entirely surprised by the presence of the pandemic, noting how health officials have been planning for a large-scale flu event for years. The concern began with worry about avian flu around the time of the SARS outbreak.
 
Since then, there has been a lot of planning among emergency and medical services, he said.
 
Baird said his employees are now using masks and goggles to transport any patients with possible signs or risk of the virus.
 
When asked how afraid he was for his own health, he said he felt fortunate to have had both vaccinations.
 
And if he hadn’t?
 
“I would certainly want to get it as soon as I could,” Baird said.
 
More vaccines are being delivered weekly to the county’s public health department, Baird noted, which are then distributed on a priority basis. Each week the allotment has grown. He said that will continue.
 
“The vaccine technology … it’s kind of an old technology and it’s just slow,” he said.
 
“They grow the vaccine in eggs and that comes with certain problems. Sometimes it just doesn’t grow the right way and they have to throw a batch out or it grows slower. It’s a living thing and it doesn’t always behave exactly as you’d expect.”
 
The “million dollar question,” he said, is when it will be available to healthy young people.
 
He estimated sometime around the first part of January, adding it is unlikely to be before then.
 
Baird stressed, however, that people should still get a regular seasonal flu vaccine, which has also been in short supply.
 
“One of the complications of two flus running around at the same time is you could actually catch both,” he said. “That’s part of what makes it pretty serious. So people should definitely get that seasonal flu shot even if they can’t get the other one.”
 
Baird said health authorities are approaching the issue of educating the public with care.
He said the goal is to get out information without causing panic.
 
“I think they’re making good, prudent choices along the way, trying to balance what are effective measures versus how disruptive it is to society and not to call or cry wolf too soon,” he said.
 
Baird’s ambulance company in Woodburn will host a free seasonal flu vaccine clinic Nov. 18.

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