Flu virus cases up this season

The latest flu season resulted in nearly double the number of reported cases for Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties when compared with the 2006-07 season.

Even though the vaccine's manufacturer, Sanofi-Pasteur, combined three different strains of the vaccine, public health officials said it simply wasn't a good match for the 2007-08 flu season.

Carol A. Paluck, Lewis County Public Health nursing supervisor, said she was shocked to hear Lewis County, the smallest of the three counties, had the most reported flu cases.

"I'm surprised, actually," she said. "There were 195 reported cases of the flu this year, and 113 cases were reported last year."

The vaccine offered some protection against the flu, she said, but it just didn't include the strain of the flu virus that circulated.

While Sanofi-Pasteur was close to having the flu strains included in the vaccine, Donna R. Grant, Jefferson County supervising public health nurse, said it just wasn't exact.

"That does happen on occasion," she said.

Mrs. Grant said 175 flu cases were reported to Jefferson County Public Health this flu season, compared with 39 cases reported last year. The agency gave out 3,010 adult doses of the vaccine and 225 doses for children 6 months to 18 years old.

As the flu season dwindled into early April, Patricia N. Ward, St. Lawrence County Public Health's director of preventive services, said the agency's staff had noticed a spike in the number of reported cases.

"We had 185 reported to us," she said. "Those are the people that actually went and had a test for it, so it wouldn't count anyone who had the flu but didn't have a test."

Mrs. Ward said if anyone is concerned about getting a flu shot for the 2008-09 flu season, there will be three new strains. Typically the manufacturer doesn't change all three strains, just one or two, she said.

"It's always a very good educated guess," she said. "Hopefully it'll be correct that time. You're still better to get it than not."

Mrs. Paluck and Mrs. Grant also encourage people to get a flu shot in the next flu season and not to be discouraged or think they won't be protected.

"It's a prediction of what will be the most prevalent next year," Mrs. Grant said of the manufacturer guessing what strains would best fit the vaccine each year. "If we had a crystal ball, it'd be nice, but that's not how science works."

She said Sanofi-Pasteur is working on the 2008-09 vaccine.