March 05--An uncommon late-winter uptick in influenza cases has prompted some Chicago-area hospitals to implement visitor restrictions.
Officials are seeing a statewide flu increase, the Illinois Department of Public Health said. As of Feb. 27, there had been 326 intensive care admissions for influenza this winter, the agency said. There were 49 by the week ending Dec. 26, the Tribune previously reported.
The flu season in Chicago, which typically runs from October to May, has peaked by early January in the past three years, but the later seasonal peak this year could be due in part to milder temperatures, health professionals said.
Area hospitals have taken notice and some are taking precautions.
At Advocate Christ Medical Center's emergency room in Oak Lawn, doctors noticed more flu cases last month, and it seemed to grow by the week, said Stephen Sokalski, chief of infectious disease and epidemiology.
"The emergency room became very busy a couple of weeks ago," he said, explaining the influenza patients were mostly children.
The hospital responded Feb. 22 by enacting restrictions that ban visitors younger than 18, and any adult visitors who have flulike symptoms.
Similar restrictions and other precautions are in place at hospitals throughout the area as health professionals advise everyone to wash hands frequently, stay home when sick and consider a flu shot if they haven't already been vaccinated as this flu season's peak seems to be later than in recent years.
Advocate Christ's restrictions reflect that the flu is affecting children, who could be visiting grandparents or other patients at the hospital, Sokalski said, adding that some kids could have the flu but not yet know it.
"When somebody acquires influenza, they have no symptoms in the first 24 hours even though they are contagious," he said. Children "are the highest risk individuals to either be incubating (the flu) or be contagious ... and they're brought into the hospital to visit very ill patients. Because of that ... we have come up with our standard recommendations (to limit visitors)."
The Cook County Department of Public Health has noticed the increase. Although the department doesn't track every reported case of influenza, it tracks cases when a patient is admitted to the ICU, said Kelley Bemis, enhanced surveillance program manager.
Tracking and predicting influenza is difficult, but the virus lives longer when it is cold and dry. Milder temperatures for most of the winter could be a reason the flu did not peak in December, health experts told the Tribune last month. The average temperature in the Chicago area during December was 39 degrees, more than 11 degrees warmer than average.
