Health Officer Predicts W.Va. Flu Cases To Rise Sharply

The biggest flu outbreak the nation has seen in 25 years is a “precursor of things to come for West Virginia,” said Dr. Steven Eshenaur, public health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

Eshenaur said that’s because – as a rural state with fewer metropolitan areas – the respiratory disease takes longer to spread. But that’s already starting to happen.

“We’re starting to see our first kind of big rise in the number of reported flu cases. That’s usually the time when you start to see that upswing in the number of reported cases of flu,” Eshenaur said.

The timing is particularly unfortunate, he said, because earlier this week the CDC shortened its list of recommended childhood vaccines.

“We are at one of the highest levels of flu that we’ve seen in 25 years, and at the same time the CDC comes out and took flu off of the recommended childhood vaccinations. We find that very strange, especially the timing,” Eshenaur said. ”It doesn’t seem to make sense or add up.

Eshenaur said it’s not too late to get a flu vaccine. 

“A lot of people think, ‘Well, I got the flu shot and I still got the flu.’ That may very well be true, but a flu shot can help decrease the transmission of the disease, but also decrease the symptoms and the length of the disease,” he said.

Once someone starts showing flu symptoms, they’re generally considered contagious, Eshenaur said. In addition to the vaccine, the public can protect themselves by masking, using hand sanitizers and avoiding large crowds.