Brown County Health Officer Dr. Norman Oestrike answered questions from The Democrat about the flu and the coronavirus.
Q: Talk about the coronavirus versus the flu. Which one is more of a threat to American citizens currently?
A: Influenza-like illnesses, frequently referred to ILI, are severe respiratory illnesses, usually the influenza type A or type B viruses. ILI can be life threatening, especially to patients with other conditions or diseases and to the very young and the elderly.
The current “coronavirus” outbreak is unrelated to the influenza viruses. It is a new strain from China, and less is known about it. The incubation times may be much longer and patients may be infectious before symptoms develop, making control of an outbreak much more difficult and of longer duration. There are other known coronaviruses, including MERS (Middle Eastern Respirator Syndrome), which is a very severe illness.
Q: Do you get information from doctor offices about how bad the flu is? Is there a way for the health department to gauge the impact of the flu here locally?
A: We get information from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and ISDH (Indiana State Department of Health). Physicians, medical facilities, including hospitals and diagnostic laboratories, all report information on these conditions to those entities. This information is tabulated and made available to local health departments.
Q: Is this a typical year for the flu? Better or worse?
A: We are having an active flu season this year. The number of cases so far have closely followed our experiences of last year.
Q: Are flu vaccines available at the health department? Should people still get one if they haven’t already?
A: The flu vaccine is still available from the Brown County Health Department, and we are actively immunizing patients that are asymptomatic, especially with no fever.
Q: Does the flu vaccine protect you from the coronavirus?
A: Influenza vaccines do not protect you from the coronaviruses.
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