Colorado is more than halfway through the annual flu season, and thanks to the aggressive public health measures taken to combat COVID-19, coupled with an increase in vaccinations, the state has seen a staggering decline in serious cases and deaths.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment has so far recorded a total of 23 hospitalizations this 23 flu season, which began on September 27 and will last until May 22.
By this time last year, 2,430 people across the country had been admitted to hospital with flu. Colorado recorded 3,546 total flu hospitalizations in all 64 counties during the 2019-20 season.
According to state health data, Colorado has so far seen no deaths from children’s flu, as well as no outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Three children under the age of 18 die from the flu in Colorado during the 2019-20 flu season.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have only been nationwide reports nationwide this season. In contrast, the CDC reports that the 2019-20 season had a record high of 188 flu-related deaths in children across the US
Colorado health officials said they did not detect deaths from adult flu, but the CDC did. To date, in the 2020-21 season, the CDC reports that three people in Colorado have died of the flu. During the 2019-20 season, according to CDC data, Colorado experienced 143 total deaths from influenza.
“I have never seen flu so low,” said Larissa Pisney, medical director of infection prevention and control at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. “It’s definitely unprecedented.”
The number of flu hospitalizations this season is the lowest that dr. Eric France, chief medical officer at the state health department, saw in his 30-year practice. He called it ‘extraordinary’.
Medical experts said the sharp decline in the traditional flu could be attributed to several factors, including coronavirus precautions and especially the fact that children were not yet much of the pandemic in school. This is often the most important way in which flu is spread.
All the things people do to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 – including wearing face masks, less travel, physical distance and regular hand washing – have led to a decrease in flu, Pisney said.
“People need to be excited to see that flu can be prevented with our basic approach to public health to wear masks, vaccinate and avoid gatherings,” France said.
In addition, more people have received their flu shots this season. There was a 13.5% increase in flu vaccinations last season. As of February 15, 124,469 doses of flu vaccine have been administered in Colorado.
Even if someone has not yet received a flu vaccine, Pisney said, there is still time because the virus has a chance for late-season activities.
“The medical community was very concerned about the possibility of the accompanying flu seasons amid a COVID-19 pandemic,” said Amy Duckro, an infectious disease doctor at Kaiser Permanente Colorado. ‘Thank goodness it did not happen. We were all very relieved. At least that has not happened yet. ”
Although flu and COVID-19 are similar and transmitted in similar ways, Pisney said the two should not mistake the same virus. COVID-19 is more contagious, leads to more hospitalizations and is more lethal. In the past year in Colorado, more than 23,000 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized and nearly 6,000 people died from the coronavirus.
Even with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, there is no guarantee that the new coronavirus will disappear.
Duckro said medical professionals could not predict the current low flu season, and much like the uncertainty of the past year, they will also not be able to predict what COVID-19 will do in the coming years.
“It’s really hard to predict, but I suspect COVID will become like flu,” Pisney said. ‘We’ll probably see some similar seasonality. I suspect COVID will be just a part of our normal lives and work in the years to come. ”
If COVID-19 does become an annual virus, Duckro said the lessons learned during this pandemic will enable people to manage it more effectively in the future.
France said there are still many that we do not know about COVID-19, but he expects supplements to be vaccinated from time to time, as is done with flu.
“We will learn more as we move forward,” he said.
As Colorado continues to navigate the pandemic, it is important to continue with the necessary safety measures to limit the number of cases of both influenza and COVID-19, Duckro said. Masking, maintaining physical distance and washing hands is the key.
‘It’s easy to be a little cavalier about a disease that may be milder for you, but it continues the risk and it continues the cycle of exposure, which puts more vulnerable people in our communities at a pretty serious risk. , ”Duckro said.