MADISON, Wis. — With all the focus on COVID, some are often asking, “What about the flu?”
There is still misinformation being spread about flu cases being counted as COVID cases. Now that we’re in flu season it’s easy to see that the illnesses are separated. Flu cases are just extremely low.
“We’ve only had 28 cases since October, which we should be averaging 20-30 cases a week. So the numbers statewide, nationwide are very, very low at this particular point,” said Tom Haupt, Wisconsin Influenza Surveillance Coordinator for Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Haupt said DHS is still hearing confusion from the community, especially regarding the way deaths are counted. He made it clear flu deaths are not being marked as COVID deaths, and the process has been done the same way for years.
“The numbers for like the rhinovirus, which is the common cold, have also been down too, compared to what we’ve had previous years,” said Haupt.
He said the low cold and flu numbers could be because masks and social distancing are working to not only prevent the spread of coronavirus, but also other viruses too.
At the same time, Wisconsin is set to break its record for the amount of people vaccinated for the flu. Haupt said the record is 42% and as of last week 39% of the state or about 2.2 million people were immunized.
Although low flu numbers is good news, Haupt is concerned some clinicians are not testing for things other than COVID.
“We really have to not ignore the other viruses, and that would include not only influenza but RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, which can be very deadly to young children, especially those who may be born premature, and also people in nursing homes,” he said.
SSM Health VP of Primary Care Services Dr. Dave Ottenbaker said the healthcare system is currently not testing for influenza.
“If people are coming in with those classic symptoms that we are suspicious of COVID, then we’re going to go ahead and do the COVID test. In fact, we are not actively testing for influenza right now because it’s quite frankly not in our market,” said Ottenbaker.
He said even if a patient’s COVID test comes back negative, they will not be tested for influenza right now. This could change if the flu season gets worse.
“We would expect that if we’re going to see influenza, it’ll be after the first of the year,” said Ottenbaker.
But Haupt worries we may be missing the identification of other dangerous illnesses as we focus on COVID.
“Yes, COVID will take center stage, but we have to get out of our silo and think about testing for these other viruses as well,” said Haupt.
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