Clark County flu activity minimal, but it may not stay that way

Columbian - 11/17/2018

Nov. 17--Have no fear, flu season still isn't really here.

In the latest Public Health Clark County Weekly Influenza Update for week 45, there was only one positive flu test reported. The tests are gathered from Clark County testing locations operated by Legacy Health, PeaceHealth and Kaiser Permanente.

So far, Clark County has only had seven positive tests this season, said Madison Riethman, an epidemiologist with Clark County Public Health. Clark County is still below the 10 percent positivity rate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other agencies use to define an active flu season.

In the latest update, Clark County had a 0.74 percent positivity rate. The state of Washington had a 0.7 rate, and the CDC tracked the U.S. rate at 0.90. Riethman said flu activity has been very minimal this year, but explained that flu season's onset can be hard to predict and very random. She referenced a humorous saying that "if you've seen one flu season, you've seen one flu season."

At this time last year, the positivity rate was around 3 percent, but at this time two years ago the positivity rate was around 27 percent, and Clark County had entered active flu season before Thanksgiving.

Last year, Clark County entered active flu season in week 46 (about where we are now), and the flu season continued into the spring. Riethman said it was a particularly long flu season. She mentioned that the good thing about this active flu season possibly starting later is that it gives Public Health and medical providers time to broadcast health messages, and get people to receive vaccines.

Riethman did mention this might be as good a time as any to get your flu vaccine, because the upcoming holidays could certainly lead to a spike in flu activity.

"As unpredictable as each season can be there is a predictability in that it will come at some point," Riethman said. "The question is just when."

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