Flu deaths on the rise in King County
A Redmond couple was hit hard by the flu. And is happening a week after the Centers for Disease Control canceled a meeting to discuss next year's flu vaccine.
That decision caught the medical community by surprise.
Meanwhile, King County is experiencing a sharp rise in flu deaths. This time last year, 27 people had died from influenza. This year, that number is a whopping 51 people who died from the flu.
Hospitals and urgent care clinics are seeing this rise in flu cases.
The statistics from King County show nearly eight percent of those visiting hospitals because of the flu. That's more than 1,200 visits to the ER by people sick with the flu.
KIRO 7 talked to a Redmond couple who know that fact all too well.
'I did have the flu,' said Judy Rantz Willman. 'And my husband also had the flu. Only he had B influenza and I had A influenza.'
Judy can laugh about it now. But in mid-February, she and her husband, Ray, were really sick.
'We were both sick for two weeks,' Ray confirmed. 'Yeah,' agreed Judy. 'He had pneumonia along with the flu.'
Ray ended up at Overlake Medical Center. But the disease was pretty rough for Judy, too.
'Even if I hadn't been coughing with trying to breathe, it's just everything hurt,' she said, chuckling. 'Everything.'
'We've had a large uptick in Influenza A and now we're actually, over the last week, seeing an uptick in Influenza B as well,' confirmed Overlake Family Medicine Dr. Jennifer Spence.
She blames the uptick on the isolation, and the masks that COVID-19 once required.
'We're used to being constantly exposed to things,' said Dr. Spence. 'So, we're going to have to rebuild the immunity to all of those bugs. And we're going to have to keep getting vaccinated against all of those illnesses.'
But just last week, the Centers for Disease Control postponed the first public vaccine meeting under the new federal administration, delaying work to figure out which vaccines to push out next year.
'I do hope those can go forward,' said UW Medicine infectious disease specialist Ana Weil, 'so, that vaccine can be manufactured in a timely manner and people can get their vaccine in the fall.'
Dr. Weil says the consequences could impact us all. She was asked if she worries if the flu vaccine isn't readily available.
'The flu vaccine, I do worry that rates will increase,' she said. If more people get the flu, she says, more people could die.
So, what to do? It's old advice by now: wash your hands often, wear a mask to avoid being exposed, and stay home if you're sick.
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