Flu cases the highest LA State Health Department has seen in over a decade

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The Louisiana State Health Department confirmed the season’s first flu related death of a child. Experts said of the roughly 20 states considered to have high flu activity Louisiana and South Carolina top the charts.

Eleanor Whitman’s family said you don’t know just how good, good feels until after you’ve been bed-ridden.

“It was just awful like I actually thought I was dying,” Eleanor Whitman said.

Some of them recently had strep, others possibly Covid or RSV.

“Just kind of like a circle in our house cause like someone would get better and then like someone else would kind of like get a different sickness each week,” Whitman said.

Whitman just recovered from a bad bout of the flu.

“I felt like I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to get up… I was like really hot all the time and just sweaty but also like really cold at the same time and it just felt worse than previous years I felt like,” Whitman said.

On Friday, the State Health Department announced Louisiana’s first pediatric flu related death this season in the Baton Rouge area, adding that there were three pediatric RSV deaths in 2023.

Doctor Fred Lopez with LSU Health said a rise in all respiratory illnesses is common this time of year with flu season typically starting in October, peaking around January and lasting through May.

“This is a hotbed right now for flu but don’t forget about Covid 19 and don’t forget about RSV and some other cold viruses that are out there,” said Theresa Sokol, State Epidemiologist.

State Epidemiologist Theresa Sokol said this is the highest level of flu activity Louisiana has seen in more than a decade, and with that, hospitalizations are rising.

“Activity in the US this year and really it’s pretty much the same usually from year to year starts to increase in the southeastern and the south Atlantic states first,” Sokol said.

The state reported 165 new flu admissions this week and 149 the week prior. She said those most impacted, being toddlers and elementary aged children. Sokol said reports across all age groups indicate between 11-12% of emergency department visits are related to flu like illness. Narrowing the focus, flu like illness accounts for 31% of visits for children ages 2 to 4 and 36% for kids 5 to 11.

Sokol said, with Covid, they see multiple surges throughout the year and especially during the winter. She said Covid has been fairly steady in Louisiana, but health experts are beginning to see an increase nationally in some parts of the Midwest and expect it’s only a matter of time before LA is the same. Sokol said RSV was extremely high in November and has been on the decline this month, though it is still very high among infants.

They expect the trend to continue through the holidays as people travel and groups gather.

Dr. Lopez said about 35,000 people on average die in the US each year from the flu. He said less than 50% of Americans have gotten the flu vaccine, only between 15-20% of adults have gotten the updated Covid-19 vaccine, and roughly 15-20% of eligible adults have gotten the RSV vaccine, this being the first year it’s available.

“Not doing very well in promoting these vaccines. […] What they’re really good at when it comes to Covid 19, RSV and flu is preventing complications, hospitalizations and deaths. In fact, the slogan this year from the CDC regarding flu vaccine is taking it from wild to mild,” Fred Lopez, Professor of Medicine & specialist in infectious diseases at LSU New Orleans. “The influenza viruses that are circulating in Louisiana most commonly is H1-N1 followed by the influenza B Victoria Lineage and both of these are included in this years vaccine.”

They said be mindful of young people, elderly, pregnant women, the immunocompromised, and those with illnesses who are at a higher risk for suffering from complications.

Health experts said wash your hands, stay home if you’re sick, cover coughs and consider wearing a mask inside. There are anti-viral medications available for flu and covid. As for vaccines, it takes about two weeks for immunity to kick in. Dr. Lopez said you can still get vaccines after you get something like the flu to protect against other strains.

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