Medical officials worry about upcoming flu season
News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Nicole Dahl, left, and Thomas Kane sit at a table in Kane’s office at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena on Tuesday.
News Photo by Mike Gonzalez COVID-19 and flu vaccines sit on a table at the Rite-Aid pharmacy on U.S.-23 on Oct. 11.
News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Nicole Dahl, left, and Thomas Kane sit at a table in Kane’s office at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena on Tuesday.
News Photo by Mike Gonzalez COVID-19 and flu vaccines sit on a table at the Rite-Aid pharmacy on U.S.-23 on Oct. 11.
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ALPENA -- Doctors and other medical officials worry that rural areas of Michigan may see a harmful upcoming influenza season, especially for younger children and older adults.
Dr. Vincent Winkler-Prins, a physician and owner of Table Health-Petoskey Family Practice, said in a virtual meeting on Monday hosted by the Michigan Association of Family Physicians that flu vaccination rates for children are low in rural parts of Michigan.
"Flu vaccination rates for children living in rural areas worsened last season -- 19 percentage points lower than for children living in urban areas," Winkler-Prins said. "As the cold weather sets in and we spend more time inside together, please ensure your entire family is protected from influenza before peak caseload hits."
Winkler-Prins and other physicians highly recommended children get the flu vaccine, as younger ages do not have strong immune systems to fight the virus.
The same goes for older adults.
Thomas Kane, vice president of nursing at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena, said the flu and any viruses that affect the respiratory system, such as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV, are of concern to the elderly community.
"Those folks that are maybe in their 80s, now 90s, many of them smoked and many of them worked in areas where they were allowed to smoke even on the job," Kane said. "So we see a pretty significant level of pulmonary disease in our geographic area. A lot of those people have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, which puts them at very high risk for contracting one of these viruses, and then the other thing is, once they have it, being able to recover from it."
On May 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever RSV vaccine for adults aged 60 or older. Kane said RSV vaccines have been available for young children, as the virus is very dangerous in that age group, but that older adults should get the new vaccine as soon as possible.
While the flu is seen as a common virus to come around every year, Dr. Nirali Bora, medical director of the Kent County Health Department, said in the virtual meeting on Monday that it should be considered a major public health threat.
"Last year in the U.S., 21,000 people died from the flu, including 177 children," Bora said. "This is far too many deaths from an illness that's preventable with an effective, accessible vaccine."
Flu season usually runs from early December until February.
Nicole Dahl, infection prevention nurse at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena, said the hospital usually knows when the season has started when the local public health department has alerted them.
"We usually get kind of a clue from the health department right when they start seeing it in the community first," Dahl said. "Any staff members here that aren't vaccinated against the flu start to wear a mask during their shift."
Influenza has two strains, named influenza A and influenza B. The flu vaccine available at pharmacies and other medical facilities cover both strains and can also soften any effects the flu can give if contracted.
"Contracting a respiratory virus, it's one piece of the puzzle," Kane said. "But being able to recover from it, that's almost the bigger piece of it."