Flu season started early this year as the number of cases rose again in December throughout Hawaii, according to the state Department of Health’s Influenza Surveillance Report.
“The flu started to peak a little earlier, but we’ve stayed low,” said DOH Disease Investigation Branch Chief Caroline Pratt. “If we can get people vaccinated, to stay home when sick, and wear a mask, then hopefully we can keep it low.”
Ten weeks into flu season, the number of medical visits for influenza-like illness are comparable to Hawaii’s historical baseline, but lower than the national average.
Hilo Medical Center confirmed it continues to treat flu patients, but added levels are similar to prepandemic.
“We’ve seen some uptick, but I wouldn’t call it a crisis by any means,” said HMC’s CEO Dan Brinkman. “People are more indoors, and also I think with a lot of our tourists that come from the mainland, they’re in peak (flu) season there, and they bring it with them.”
Respiratory illness cases on the mainland have surpassed prepandemic levels, also starting earlier this season.
In Hawaii, there have been 16 “clusters” — or flu cases occurring within the same area — identified by the DOH.
“Most of those are probably in congregate settings like long-term care facilities,” said Pratt, adding that the number “doesn’t seem very high.”
This year’s dominant flu strain is Influenza A, known as subtype H3, which tends to result in higher flu hospitalizations among the elderly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This season, there have been 201 deaths statewide related to pneumonia, influenza or COVID-19, and no pediatric deaths, which Pratt described as similar to Hawaii’s historic baseline.
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, may have already plateaued this season as well, peaking during the last week of October and first week of November.
“We were a little bit behind the mainland in our peak,” said Pratt regarding RSV cases. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it went back up a little bit during the holidays with everybody being around each other and lots of gatherings, but I think that was probably the peak.”
Even as RSV cases decrease, the number of reported cases are still significantly higher than previous seasons.
“There’s definitely been a surge, but we’re also probably finding more cases,” said Pratt. “There’s more tests being done than five years ago, and there’s more easily accessible tests, including tests where you can find the flu, RSV and COVID all at the same time.”
Stopping the spread has also been difficult with a return to prepandemic lifestyles.
“There’s no vaccine with RSV, but it can be prevented with hand-washing and with masks,” said Pratt, adding similar mitigation measures used for COVID-19 can help prevent both the flu and RSV.
“We cant prevent every single case,” she said. “But we can prevent severity and hospitalization at this point.”
She added individuals can get vaccinated for both COVID and the flu during the same appointment.
“Our kupuna are doing much better at getting their bivalent boosters than our younger people,” said DOH spokesperson Brooks Beahr. “But we still need our seniors to do it, because those are the people that are succumbing to the illness.”
A new tool from the CDC helps calculate the right time to get another booster: https://tinyurl.com/2j5feau3.
“You might still get COVID, but you’re not going to get nearly as sick if you’ve got that bivalent booster,” said Beahr. “That will cover the most recent strain of omicron, and all the boosters available right now are the bivalent one, so you don’t have to go out and search for it.”
COVID cases have remained steady throughout the state and Hawaii County this week, but heading into 2023, Baehr said the DOH is paying close attention to new variants of concern, including XBB.1.5.
“Every time the virus is transmitted from one person to another, it’s another chance to mutate,” said Baehr.
“You’ll see that (XBB.1.5) quickly took over as the dominant strain in New England, and it seems to be even more transmissible than previous variants and subvariants.”
Baehr also said the DOH is looking at other trends occurring on the mainland.
“Often things happen on the mainland before they happen here,” said Baehr. “But once they travel here, we see the same patterns.”
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.