Sonoma County hit by a wave of flu cases

The flu has struck Sonoma County, and health officials here and around the Bay Area sounded the alarm Friday about a significant jump in the number of cases.

“We’re definitely hearing that there’s a pretty dramatic uptick in influenza activity within Sonoma County,” Karen Holbrook, the county’s deputy health officer, said Friday.

Among the signs in the county:

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital reported a roughly fourfold increase in influenza cases in December from the same month over the last two years. The hospital treated 108 people last month, compared to 12 cases a year ago and 28 cases in December 2014.

For the first week of 2017, the hospital has had 48 additional cases, plus another 38 cases at Petaluma Valley Hospital, both of which are operated by St. Joseph Health.

Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital reported 46 percent of patients with respiratory symptoms in the last week tested positive for influenza. Thirteen of those patients were admitted to the hospital.

Kaiser Permanente reported that over 40 percent of the patients who in the last week were swabbed to test for influenza in Santa Rosa tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, Napa County reported that a resident there died Thursday from influenza. It was that county’s first such death and one of at least five reported this season for those under 65 in California.

Kaiser also reported to the state Department of Public Health that 8 percent of its patients hospitalized in California during the last week of December were admitted with a pneumonia or influenza diagnosis. A state report said that high a rate was “above expected levels for this time of year.”

“This has been a very busy influenza year, no doubt about it,” said Dr. Gary Green, chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Santa Rosa. It may be among the busiest in the last decade, he said.

The good news, Green said, is that while it has been a more active flu season, “We haven’t seen as many critically ill cases,” especially given the number of patients receiving treatment.

Sonoma County has had two patients under 65 years old admitted to intensive care units for influenza this season, Holbrook said.

On Friday, medical and public health officers from at least four Bay Area counties urged the public to take steps to protect themselves and their families from the virus.

“It’s not too late to get vaccinated,” Holbrook said. “The flu vaccine this year is a good match ... It’s our best way to prevent influenza.”

Flu symptoms generally include a fever and chills, muscle or body aches as well as a possible cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose and fatigue. Colds, on the other hand, are usually milder than flu symptoms, come with a runny or stuffy nose and don’t cause a fever.

Those sick from the virus should stay home until they’re free of symptoms for 24 hours, officials said. The general public should wash their hands often and thoroughly and also avoid touching their eyes, their noses and mouths. Influenza kills roughly 36,000 Americans a year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

That involves people of all ages, but much of the reporting in California focuses on patients under 65 years of age. Health officials say the reason is that illness and death among relatively younger people better indicates the severity of the influenza strains they are battling each year.

In Sonoma County, it’s difficult to find a health care facility that’s not being affected by influenza this season.

“We are definitely seeing an increase of people with flu-like symptoms,” said Dr. Jeremy Mesches, medical director for quality for Sutter Medical Group of the Redwoods in Santa Rosa.

Mesches, also a family medicine doctor, worked New Year’s Eve and this week at a Sutter clinic on Stony Circle. Influenza wasn’t the only illness the patients there complained of.

“There’s a nasty cold going around, too,” he said.

“We definitely have outbreaks” involving influenza at long-term care and rehabilitation facilities this season in the county, according to Holbrook, but said she couldn’t provide a number. Health officials provide such facilities with guidance to control the spread of the virus, she said.

St. Joseph officials on Friday asked the public to consider alternatives to emergency care when seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms. They noted that only about 15 percent of patients who come to Memorial’s emergency department with such complaints are admitted to the hospital.

“This means that the majority of individuals with influenza could be seeking care with a physician or urgent care clinic rather than coming to the ED, which should be used for people who need immediate or critical care,” Vicki White, St. Joseph’s chief nursing officer, said in a statement.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com.