As fall approaches, health officials are worried about an unprecedented flu season in which two potentially deadly respiratory illnesses would both be stressing the same limited healthcare resources.
Getting a flu shot is important now more than ever, state officials say – the healthcare system simply can’t handle two simultaneous outbreaks.
Beth Daly, the chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control in New Hampshire, said the state doesn’t keep official records about the number of influenza cases in each hospital, but she knows anecdotally the virus is a large contributor to hospitalizations in the winter. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control estimates between 140,000 and 810,000 people are hospitalized each year due to the flu. Experts are concerned that a surge of influenza patients will coincide with a new wave of COVID-19.
Another complicating factor is that while the influenza and COVID-19 viruses are very different, they present almost identical symptoms in patients. Daly said there is virtually no way to distinguish between the two illnesses based on symptoms alone.
She said during the summer, someone with a respiratory illness could be easily identified and tested as a COVID-19 patient. Once the flu season begins, diagnosis becomes more complicated. More cases of the flu mean that moreresources and effort will have to be expended to test them for COVID-19.
Fewer cases of influenza mean health officials can focus their attention on monitoring the coronavirus pandemic.
The CDC recently developed a test that checks for both the various flu strains and the COVID-19 virus, which will be made available to public health laboratories. Daly said she expects the test to be available in the fall.
New Hampshire has a relatively high vaccination rate – about 50% of people in the state get influenza shots. Still, Daly said the number could always be improved, especially during such a pivotal moment for the state’s healthcare system.
Jose Mercado, the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, said it’s important that the state at least meets last year’s vaccination rate.
He said it’s still too early to tell exactly how severe this flu season will be, but people should get the shot anyway to prevent a potentially disastrous outcome for hospitals in the state.
“Prevention is key,” he said. “We want to be able to do the most we can to get people vaccinated.”
Health experts are hoping New Hampshire will see fewer cases of influenza this year. The same precautions the state has recommended to quell the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing and wearing masks, should also work to prevent the spread of the flu. In fact, Daly said last year’s flu season seemed to end earlier than usual, likely because of the social distancing caused by COVID-19.
Daly said the state is investing in its usual media campaign to promote flu vaccination but does not have a specific plan to expand its campaign beyond that.