Nation being hit by flu epidemic

NEWSDAY

An influenza epidemic is under way nationwide, complicated by concerns involving the vaccine and a key medication used to fight the illness.

“We call it a seasonal epidemic,” said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bresee said it is impossible to tell whether this winter’s bout with the infection will be worse — or milder — than previous years because it takes the CDC months to calculate the number of hospitalizations and deaths. Few corners of the country have been left unscathed by the highly contagious respiratory illness, which has already resulted in fatalities in New York state.

A flu epidemic is determined through a variety of statistical measures, and never as a result of a direct head count, explained Dr. Gary Leonardi, chief of virology at Nassau University Medical Center, because only a fraction of people affected by the flu are treated by physicians. To declare an epidemic, flu trackers examine hospitalizations, emergency room admissions and number of deaths — factors that can take months to compile.