Health

Protecting the community 

Bracing for flu season

LAURIUM -- Flu season is right around the corner and health officials and educators are bracing for the increased volume in sick patients -- old and young -- and advising residents to get vaccinated for this year's flu strains.

Aspirus Keweenaw Director of Nursing Darcy Donnelly said the hospital is working with other healthcare workers and health department officials to keep the community safe. "We are in communication regularly with the health department every flu season," Donnelly said. "If they start to see that there's an outbreak occurring, then we get together on a call and understand the current state of things and if we need to coordinate effort to keep the community healthy, then we do that."

Donnelly said Aspirus has a plan in case an outbreak or increased volume of sick patients occurs at the Laurium location. "If we have more patients than usual, we already know what our plan A, B and C is going to be," she said. "We fully developed those during COVID and we've just continued to run with those every flu season or for any outbreak that may come."

Families who have children in school are preparing for flu season as well. Early childhood caretakers and educators at BHK, like Health Services Director Katie Waara, are taking precautions in the coming months to limit transmissible illnesses. "We have regular hand washing, so when students, families, teachers or anyone enter our classroom our guidance is wash your hands right away," she said. "That is a great way to stop this spread of any contagious illness that is going around."

Waara said any time a child is sick or misses time at BHK, parents are urged to talk to their primary care provider and coordinate with the school for the best option.

"Oftentimes there can be a lot of questions. Parents are wondering about the symptoms," she said. "We advise the family to contact their primary care provider and have their kid seen as soon as possible, because that is the first line of defense. It's really knowing what are those symptoms and do they need to be treated or are they going to run their course."

Waara added BHK does not usually see an uptick in sick kids around this time of year, rather the holiday season is the time when it usually pays close attention.

Hancock Public Schools Superintendent Chris Salani said the school district takes hand hygiene seriously. It also offers flu shots at Barkell Elementary. "One thing that we are having that we typically have been doing the last several years, is we're hosting a flu shot clinic on campus," he said. "It's set up through the hospital, they come on site and we have that available for staff and families of our staff. Then we encourage our student population."

According to Salani, Hancock Schools, like other school districts in Michigan, cancel school if an outbreak causes more than 25% of the student population to stay home from school.

Flu shots are the best way to ease strain on emergency rooms and to lessen the severity of flu symptoms. The FDA approved an egg-based and a recombinant-based vaccine, they contain three strains of influenza, including H1N1, H3N2 and influenza-B (Victoria lineage).

Western Upper Peninsula Health Department Medical Director Dr. Robert Van Howe said the bottom line is protecting those who are immunocompromised in the community. "For kids, we're recommending everyone safely six months and older getting vaccinated for influenza," he said.

Both Donnelly and Van Howe said those with co-morbidities (having two or more medical conditions at once) are at higher risk for developing serious illness because of influenza. Van Howe added elderly residents have lessened immune symptoms and are also at a higher risk of worsened symptoms. "Especially in people who are elderly and have other underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, respiratory illnesses or are immunocompromised," he said. "They're at a higher risk of being hospitalized, ending up in the ICU or dying from influenza."

Houghton County residents are getting vaccinated for the flu at higher rates than the state average. According to the State of Michigan's vaccination June report cards page for Houghton County, influenza immunizations for children 6 months thru 8 years old are 0.5% above the state average, and 1+ flu shots for children 6 months thru 17 years old is 0.4% above the state average. Flu shots for adults are more than four points above the state average.

Between protecting the immunocompromised, getting your flu shot, and practicing safe hygiene, the Copper Country is getting ready for flu season -- at every level.

For more information about influenza from the health department, visit wupdhd.org/immunizations/ or wupdhd.org/michigan-flu-surveillance/.