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Respiratory illnesses filling hospital

By JEAN L. McCORKLE jmccorkle@daily-review.com

There is no denying that this year’s flu outbreak is bad, but it is generalized respiratory illnesses that are filling the hospital locally, officials said.
Sabrina Roy, Teche Regional Medical Center spokeswoman, said in January the hospital has seen “a big increase in flu patients that both came through the (emergency room) and as direct admits from their primary care physician’s office,” Roy said.
The situation has filled the sixth floor of the hospital requiring that new patients sometimes be sent to the Intensive Care Unit. The so-called “ICU overflow” is where patients are held even though they typically would be admitted to the medical-surgical unit on the sixth floor, Roy said.
The 165-bed hospital is not turning away patients, Roy said.
The typical admission, however, is for respiratory illness or cardiac conditions, Roy said. There currently are only three diagnosed cases of the flu admitted to the sixth floor.
Children or the elderly typically have been admitted if the flu turns into pneumonia or if a pre-existing condition makes it dangerous for them to have a severe respiratory illness, Roy said. Additionally, she said, if a nursing home patient is diagnosed with the flu they are required to be admitted for the five days they are taking anti-viral medication because the nursing homes do not have isolation rooms.
Youths under the age of 13 or adults exhibiting respiratory symptoms are not permitted to visit patients, especially on the fourth floor because of the risk to newborns housed there.
Roy said that if a person has had the flu shot, the illness is less severe, but it’s not stopping patients from getting the disease.
This is borne out by the Department of Health and Hospitals weekly Influenza Surveillance Report for the first week of 2015, the most recent statistics available.
Since tracking began in October, patients consistently have been diagnosed primarily with one of the H3 varieties of the flu. The other respiratory illnesses primarily being seen are rhinovirus or enterovirus and RSV, according to the state report.
For week one of the year, Region 3 (Assumption, Lafourche, Terrebonne and other regional parishes) was reporting medium high incidences of influenza-like illness, while the state as a whole reports widespread, high incidence.
In schools, Superintendent Donald Aguillard said, “we are not seeing any appreciable change in student attendance this year compared to 2014. In discussing with (School Nurse Facilitator) Lydia Duval, it appears that a flu uptick occurred during Christmas break. We continue to monitor attendance daily to monitor absences attributed to flu.”
Average attendance for the week beginning Jan. 12 was 92.29 percent, as compared to 92.94 percent during the same week in 2014.

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