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Click Here 42 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, January 31, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 20, 2003 Dr. Barbara Sibley, in a protective mask, checks the breathing of 1-year-old Jensyn who sits in the arms of her mom, Nicki Ford of Medford, at Southern Oregon Pediatrics in south Medford. Ford brought in Jensyn to check out flu-like symptoms. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Flu bug’s bite still stings Doctors offices jammed with influenza patients; some think empty schools could break cycle By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune This year’s hard-hitting flu is starting to taper off a little, but health officials say they’re waiting for a real "cure" with the holiday break — which started Friday — that will keep large numbers of students from mixing and infecting each other. Flu cases confirmed by state health labs are probably five times the number in a normal year, mainly because the flu struck so early and the vaccine was "not a good match" for actual viruses out there, said Viki Barbour of the Jackson County Health Department. "The number of Type-A cases is starting to slow down and it doesn’t appear it’s going to get worse," Barbour said, after sitting in on a "Web-cast" from the Centers of Disease Control in Atlanta. "It’s diminishing and they’re predicting the Type-B flu will come but will be a lot less severe." At Southern Oregon Pediatrics, a large pediatric clinic in south Medford, the flu is reported heavy as ever, with 40 to 60 cases a day coming in. So staff members are wearing surgical masks at all times — and those without glasses are wearing plastic masks over their faces to protect the main entry gate for germs: the eyes. "We don’t want to scare people with these masks," said the clinic’s Dr. Barbara Sibley. "But we get coughed on all day and we need to protect ourselves, so that we don’t give it to patients. It would be hard to serve anyone if all the doctors got sick." Advertisement School attendance locally remains hard-hit — it was inching below its high absentee rate of 25 percent, said Mary Welsh of South Medford High School. "A teeny bit less terrible," she said. Ashland Middle School teacher Linda Smith said 30 percent of students have been missing. Hedrick Middle School had "a lot of sick kids," according to the attendance phone, but Principal Paul Cataldo said things are definitely getting better. Calculating the flu’s impact has been skewed by the normal pre-Christmas exodus of students traveling to visit relatives, officials said. Flu vaccine, which has not protected all who got shots, is basically gone, though there may be a small additional amount allocated to states by the federal government, which bought up most of it after the flu hit, said Barbour. Most people in the vulnerable groups — those over 65, women in second and third trimesters of pregnancy, children six months to two years old and chronically ill children — have been vaccinated, she said. There have been no deaths from flu in Jackson County, although a very small number of children are in intensive care, said Sibley. Of the 42 child deaths from the flu reported across the nation, 40 percent had pre-existing infections and most of the rest developed infections during their illness with flu. Oregon, Sibley said, has been much less hard-hit than Washington, Idaho and Nevada. "We’re waiting to see the peak," said Sibley, "and hoping it’s in decline now because school kids are out and they would be spreading in the crowds at school." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times