COLUMBUS, Ohio – State health officials say flu activity is now widespread in Ohio but doctors say there is still time to get a flu shot.
“It’s never too late, until after you’ve had the flu anyway,” Dr. Gary Gillen, of Circleville Medical Associates, said. “The flu shot will still be effective if given a short time before exposure.”
“There is no way to predict how severe the season will get, but a flu vaccine – while not 100 percent effective – is still your best protection against this serious and potentially complicated illness,” Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa Long said.
“Widespread activity” means that there are increasing reports of influenza-like illness in more than half the regions in the state, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Since the flu season started in October, 833 influenza-associated hospitalizations have been reported to the state, less than half the 1,922 hospitalizations reported at this time last year.
The highest number of such hospitalizations has been reported in northeast and east central Ohio but activity in other parts of the state is quickly increasing, ODH director, Dr. Ted Wymyslo said.
Wymslo says tost of the flu circulating in Ohio is the H1N1 strain from the 2009 season, now considered a commonly circulating strain and is one of the strains included in this year’s vaccine.
County health officials in the Toledo area say three people have died from a dangerous flu strain since the end of last year.
The Toledo Lucas County Health Department says two of the deaths came last week. A third person died on New Year’s Eve.
The county health commissioner says all three died from the H1N1 strain of the flu virus.
H1N1 targets young and middle-aged adults but the Blade newspaper reports that two of those who died were Toledo women in their early 60s. A 70-year-old Lucas County resident died near the end of last week from flu-related symptoms.