San Francisco's hospitals are nearly at full capacity as this year's flu outbreak continues to drive increasing inpatient admissions and emergency room visits.
State officials today reported 32 people under the age 65 died last week from the flu. A total of 72 people under 65 have died from the flu since October, up from 14 deaths during the same time period last year. To track how prevalent flu is where you are and nationwide, click on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "flu tracker" here.
“The prevalence has been greater (this year). We all know people who have the flu, which is different from other years,” said Dr. Kathleen Jordan, chief medical officer at Dignity Health’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital. “We definitely see hospitals looking for beds.”
It's unusual for so many parts of the country to be dealing with such a high volume of cases simultaneously, she said.
Dignity’s GoHealth Urgent Care locations saw a 50 percent increase of respiratory infections from November to December 2017. Overall, this is double last season’s cases, according to Jordan. Dignity and GoHealth operate seven San Francisco locations and three Peninsula locations.
Hospitals have surge planning in place for emergency events, such as heat waves or earthquakes, and Dignity uses surge planning throughout the system, but has not yet implemented those measures to deal with the flu outbreak, Jordan said.
This year's flu vaccine is around 32 percent effective, according to health officials, but providers encourage people to get vaccinated regardless. Close to 6 percent of all Americans seeking medical treatment right now are doing so because of flu symptoms, the CDC said this week, a number which is one of the highest since the "swine flu" pandemic of 2009.
“I know the vaccination is imperfect, but if you don’t get vaccinated, it definitely won’t work. Failure to vaccinate has been part of the issue this year,” said Dr. Jeffrey Silvers, infectious disease specialist and board member of the Infectious Diseases Association of California.
In December, 75 percent of patients admitted across Sutter's nine local hospitals for the flu were not vaccinated, he said. Sutter urgent cares have been swamped and hospitals are seeing around 10 percent of inpatients coming in with the flu.
"That is very high ... It’s been a very stressful situation," Silvers said.
Relief may be on the way as the disease typically starts dropping off this month. The number of influenza tests ordered by emergency departments dropped by two-thirds this week, according to Silvers. But there is still a chance other strains can pick up and peak again, so providers recommend staying home until the fever is gone to avoid infecting others and getting the flu shot.
“It may be declining over the next three weeks, but it doesn’t mean flu season is gone,” Silvers said.
