Jan 21, 2015 2 min read

Last season, the Washington County Health Center had no confirmed cases of influenza.

So far this season, there have been 20 cases but no deaths, administrator Tim Kimmel reported Wednesday to the Washington County commissioners.

The first case at the health center was confirmed Dec. 22 and the most recent one occurred Jan. 5.

“We think we’re over the worst,” Kimmel said. “We’re getting more negatives coming back. We feel we contained it at this point.”

The health center had tests performed at Washington Hospital’s laboratory and the cases showed both Type A and Type B, according to Kimmel. The federal Centers for Disease Control notes the virus mutated or “drifted” from what authorities expected it to be, so this year’s vaccine did not turn out to be the best match for the illness.

When he saw an increase in the number of patients who were testing positive for the flu, “we immediately talked to their attending physicians and had Tamiflu ordered,” Kimmel said.

To try to contain the outbreak, the health center curtailed group activities, kept residents in their units and refrained from having residents gather in the dining room for meals.

The health center also sent letters to patients’ family members cautioning them to stay away from the building if they had flu-like symptoms. Hand sanitizer and masks are available to those inside the 288-bed facility, which has approximately 270 patients.

“The flu is such a dangerous virus for the elderly and we don’t want to take any chances,” Kimmel said.

“You always do a good job,” Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan told him.

The state Department of Health reported 104 deaths so far this season from the flu, 90 of those in people ages 65 and over.

All health center patients are given flu shots with the permission of the family and attending physician, Kimmel said, noting he and his management team were all immunized. Flu shots are also offered to county employees, and Kimmel estimated less than 10 to 15 percent decline them.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in statistics gathered through Saturday, showed an increase in the number of flu cases reported. Washington County has had 1,308 cases since September, while Greene County has had 83 and Allegheny County has had 3,949, including 587 hospitalizations. In Allegheny County, more than 900 cases of flu occurred in late December and early January, but the number was less than 300 last week.