East Hawaii has had a marked drop in flu cases since measures to prevent COVID-19 have gone into effect.
Chad Shibuya, director of infection control at Hilo Medical Center, said earlier this week that COVID-19 and the flu are both spread mainly through respiratory droplets when someone coughs or sneezes.
Within three weeks of implementing COVID-19 prevention measures like increased hand-washing and not touching one’s face, and limiting opportunities for people to gather by shutting down schools and businesses, Shibuya said fewer flu cases are being seen in HMC’s emergency department.
“We’ll have an odd one or two (cases) there, but nothing compared to what we were seeing three or four weeks ago.”
The hospital was in the middle of its flu season, Shibuya said, and prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, HMC had about five new flu cases per day.
While flu season varies year by year, Shibuya said the number of cases typically tapers off toward the end of the season, but this year, case numbers “just dropped down.”
That’s a trend being seen across the nation.
For the week ending April 4, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said laboratory-confirmed flu cases continued to decrease sharply.
The CDC did caution that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the number of individuals seeking care and their reasons for doing so in outpatient settings and emergency rooms.
In turn, that impacts the CDC’s influenza surveillance data “in ways that are difficult to differentiate from changes in illness levels.”
Statewide, 1.9 % of outpatient visits for influenza-like illnesses were reported the week of March 22-28, which was lower than the previous week, according to the state Department of Health.
Of 1,921 specimens tested for influenza that week as part of the DOH’s flu and respiratory illness surveillance program, 80 were positive for the flu.
Email Stephanie Salmons at ssalmons@hawaiitribune-herald.com.