PANAMA CITY — Flu season is at its peak, and health officials say it’s not too late to get vaccinated.
“We’ve had a pretty mild season,” said Sandon Speedling, clinic services director at Bay County Health Department. “I think that’s a pretty good testament to the education that the health department has kept out in the public.”
Flu shots cost on average $30. Most clinics accept insurance and all plans at the federally run online Health Exchange cover flu shots.
Anyone 6 months of age or older — especially elderly and pregnant women — should get vaccinated, health officials said. The season typically runs October to May.
Across the state, there have been cases of pregnant women hospitalized with influenza, according to a Florida Department of Health advisory. None of the women had been vaccinated.
“Their immune systems are weakened due to the result of the pregnancy,” said nursing supervisor at the county health department Tracy Adams, noting the clinic saw a surge in the number of pregnant women wanting to be vaccinated unlike previous flu seasons.
Adams said no flu cases — children, adults or pregnant women — were reported at the department so far this season. The department had issued 763 doses of vaccine as of Tuesday. There is no requirement for private doctors to report flu cases to the state health officials, so knowing the exact number of flu cases is impossible.
A Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System spokesperson said, similar to last flu season, the hospital has seen a few cases of patients testing positive for the virus this flu season.
However, at Bay Walk-In Clinic, more people have tested positive for flu this year than last, according to Kathy Carroll, advanced registered nurse practitioner at the clinic.
“I think we have seen more this year,” Carroll said. “A lot of them have not gotten the flu shot. They’re younger people, and think it does not apply to them, when it really should.”
Carroll said some patients have come in with the flu months after being vaccinated. She said it indicates the virus is morphing and another vaccine is needed.
Symptoms of the flu vary, Speedling said. The only way to know if an individual has the flu is to get tested.
“Individuals have to remember it takes two weeks for the vaccine to take full effect,” he said. “And some people think ‘well, I got the flu because I got the flu shot,’ but that’s not so. They were probably already exposed to the flu and got it too late.”
Swine Flu
Flu shots also protect against H1N1, commonly called “swine flu,” which has surfaced across the state and nation as this flu season’s predominant flu strain.
“The H1N1 strain is still there,” Speedling said. “It’s predominantly the one (health officials) have been seeing. When you get (vaccinated), you can be protected from that — which is nice.”
Swine flu resulted in an estimated 12,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The pandemic resulted in between 43 million and 89 million people infected.
Epidemiologists at Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee say health officials do not know what causes some strains to become more dominant than others.
“The only predictable thing about flu season is that it’s unpredictable,” said McKinley Lewis, Department of Health spokesman. “It’s kind of the way things work out in nature. … The best way to protect yourself is to get the flu shot.”