Flu season, which hit early and hard in Snohomish County, triggering standing-room-only lines for flu shots and rationing of vaccine, appears to be waning.
"We’re definitely seeing less people with influenzalike illnesses," said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, a physician at The Everett Clinic who tracks flu cases as part of a state and national influenza reporting system. "The number of people we’re testing for the flu has dropped off substantially."
An unusual number of flu cases were reported in early November in medical clinics throughout Snohomish County, about two months earlier than usual.
It is now expected to rank as the earliest flu season since 1976, both locally and nationally, Tu said.
The number of local cases grew so quickly that by the third week in November The Everett Clinic had conducted more flu tests in the first month of flu season — 380 — than it had in the entire four-month flu season last year.
During the first week in December, a 29-year-old Edmonds man died at Stevens Hospital several days after coming down with flulike symptoms. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office is still investigating the cause of his death.
The number of flu cases remained high through the second week of December, with 201 patients tested at The Everett Clinic for flu. It didn’t begin to trail off until Christmas week, when 65 people were tested.
With three weeks of steadily declining flu tests mirroring a statewide trend of declining flu cases, health care workers hope that it signals an early end to flu season.
"My guess is that we are definitely on the downward trend," Tu said.
The number of flu patients has also declined at Snohomish Family Medical Center, which, with Marysville Family Medicine, also participate in the state and national flu reporting system.
"Last week, we had two patients with flulike illnesses," said Lori Tveter, medical assistant at the Snohomish clinic. "The week before we had nine. So it’s slowed way down."
At its peak in December, virtually every community in the state was hit by flu, and it was officially classified as widespread, said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the state Health Department.
"With any luck, we’ve seen the height of the season," Moyer said.
Both Moyer and Tu said health officials are still vigilant about what happens when school reopens and more people return to work from the holidays. For those reasons, early January is a time when flu cases often rebound.
"We’re still expecting to see influenzalike illness through the end of the normal flu season at the end of March," Moyer said. "It just may be at normal levels."
Tu said health care workers are happy to get a bit of a breather from the onslaught.
"We’ve been going full tilt for about six weeks," Tu said. "Everybody’s saying thank you for the flu dropping off, and we can leave before 9:30 or 10 at night."
"We’re essentially at the beginning of the end of flu season," he said.
Is he crossing his fingers as he makes that prediction?
"You bet," he said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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