Doctors urge Idahoans to get flu shots now as influenza surges
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Audrey Dutton, Idaho Capital Sun
(Idaho Capital Sun) — Health care providers at one of Idaho’s largest chains of urgent-care clinics were alarmed in the past week, as the share of patients whose flu tests came back positive reached 44%.
Primary Health Medical Group announced the spike in influenza at its clinics Wednesday morning. The group urged Idahoans to get vaccinated for the flu, “as record numbers of influenza cases and high positivity rates are detected at Primary Health clinics across the Treasure Valley.”
More than 650 patients with influenza came to Primary Health’s clinics in the Boise area last week, said Dr. Ann Weiss, clinical director for Primary Health.
“Our positivity rate of 44% for influenza A is substantially higher than the national average of 25% and it illustrates just how much flu is circulating here in the Treasure Valley,” Weiss said in the announcement. “It takes the flu vaccine about two weeks to become fully effective in the body, so anyone who still needs that protection should go today and get their vaccine.”
State data show that patients with flu symptoms now make up nearly 10% of the clinic visits in Idaho, a higher number than at any point in the past 10 years.
Nearly 9% of emergency room patients in Idaho currently are there with flu-like symptoms, as well, the data show.
Idaho has reported nine flu-related deaths so far this season, including five in the past week. The deaths were in people age 50 and older who lived in several regions across the state.
Flu shots for all age groups, and nasal-mist vaccines for children, are available at urgent care clinics, primary care offices and pharmacies across Idaho. Some locations take walk-in appointments for a flu shot, but Idahoans can go to vaccines.gov/find-vaccines to schedule the flu vaccine of their choice, at the location of their choice.
As flu rages, US releases medicine from national stockpile
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country.
This year’s flu season has hit hard and early. Some people are even noticing bare shelves at pharmacies and grocery stores when they make a run for over-the-counter medicines as cases have spiked. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the flu has resulted in 150,000 hospitalizations and 9,300 deaths so far this season.
“Jurisdictions will be able to get the support they need to keep Americans healthy as flu cases rise this winter,” Dawn O’Connell, an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the CDC, said in a statement.
States will be able to request doses of the prescription flu medication Tamiflu kept in the Strategic National Stockpile from HHS. The administration is not releasing how many doses will be made available. Antiviral medications were released from the stockpile more than a decade ago during the H1N1, also known as swine flu, pandemic.