Colorado leads nation in flu cases

By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 14, 2008 at 9:55 p.m.
Updated January 14, 2008 at 9:59 p.m.

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Colorado is the first state to be hit by widespread flu this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have flu in most regions of the state,” said Lisa Miller, director of the state’s Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division.

As of Jan. 5, the CDC categorized Colorado’s flu as widespread, while in 10 states it was designated as“regional,” and in 12 others and the District of Columbia it was “local.”

Twenty-six states and Puerto Rico had “sporadic” flu activity.

Miller said it’s unknown why the flu is widespread in Colorado.But she said it doesn’t necessarily mean that the state is in for a hard flu season this year.

“There are lots of different factors that operate differently every year,” she said. “It may stay flat the rest of the season. So far this flu season the state has had 99 hospitalizations because of flu.

Adams County has the most with 18, followed by Arapahoe, Denver and Jefferson counties with 10 each, El Paso County with eight, Larimer and Weld counties with six each, Boulder and Mesa counties with four each, Montrose County with two, and Archuleta, Broomfield, Kiowa, Morgan and an unknown county reporting one each.

“Last year we had 364 hospitalizations and it didn’t peak until March,” Miller said. “So, we picked up a little sooner than last year.”

This season, 20 percent of specimen tests in the state have come back positive for flu, well above the national average of 7.2 percent.

There have been no pediatric deaths.

“We want to make sure that people get inoculated,” Miller said. “If they haven’t gotten their flu shots, they should strongly consider doing that.”

Miller said she believes the worst flu season in Colorado in recent history was 2003-2004, when 14 children died from flu and 14,818 cases were confirmed.

There have been no pediatric deaths this year, but children seem to be hit the hardest, with infants under the age of 6 months accounting for the highest rate — 29 per 100,000, followed by babies 6 months to 23 months, Miller said.

“It points out the need for kids to get immunized,” she said.

Vaccines are not developed for babies under 6 months, so it’s especially important that their parents or caregivers are immunized.

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