A year ago a new virus burst upon the scene and quickly reached pandemic proportions. Almost as quickly, Kansas had its first case of what was initially called swine flu, when a Dickinson County man who had visited Mexico fell ill.
A year later, few people are talking about H1N1 influenza, but it hasn’t gone away, cautions Debbie McGraw, a registered nurse and director of the Pratt County Health Department.
Many people consider the 2009 “swine flu” epidemic as another over-hyped, sky-is-falling media scare, Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, Kansas State Health Officer, acknowledged.
“That’s unfortunate,” he wrote in an opinion column, “because now is a good time to take stock of what we have learned about H1N1 flu in the past year, and start to prepare for the unpredictable — but inevitable — next chapter in humanity’s ongoing coexistence with this new virus.”
He listed some key points to consider:
• Most Americans remain susceptible to H1N1 flu. Roughly 56 percent of the population did not have the virus last year or did not receive a vaccination.
• Influenza viruses typically mutate from year to year. People who were infected or vaccinated last year will need a new vaccination this year.
• So far the vast majority of disease from the virus has been mild, but that could change. The virus has already shown it can kill more than 12,000 Americans and put 270,000 others in the hospital, including many young people who are not normally sickened as seriously with the flu.
The best estimate of H1N1 cases in Pratt County is 10 or less, McGraw said. After the disease was confirmed to be present in the county, Kansas Department of Health and Environment quit testing for it, so the number is only a guess. In general, she said, the flu season was fairly mild in 2009, although there did seem to be more than the usual amount of pneumonia.
On Nov. 19, the Pratt County Health Department vaccinated 419 children and more than 1,000 total doses were given to people of all ages from then until now.
She also stresses that everyone should be vaccinated this year, even if they had the virus or the vaccine last year, but they won’t have to get to separate shots. H1N1 will be included in the regular flu vaccine for 2010. The nasal spray, that proved very popular for small children, will be available again.
The health department has tentatively set a date in October for a flu vaccine clinic, McGraw said, and plans are being made to again hold it as a drive-through, which has been successful in immunizing large numbers of people in a relatively short period of time.
