Measures that have kept Chicagoans in their homes in an effort to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic have had another benefit, experts say — stopping a nasty influenza season.
According to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the 2019-20 influenza season, now winding down, was particularly harsh. But hospitalizations and other tracking measurements for influenza sharply decreased as news of the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up.
Experts say last month’s good hygiene messaging, like hand-washing and staying home when sick, combined with social distancing pleas from government officials and the statewide stay-at-home order had a dramatic effect on the spread of flu.
“We were seeing hundreds of flu (cases) every week at the hospital, and then we had like five,” said Dr. Emily Landon, chief infectious disease epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine. “This was a really bad flu year,” but preventative measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic “cut it short.”
“It probably saved thousands of lives across the country,” she said.
Typically, Landon said, influenza has a gradual slowdown in the spring but continues to spread. However, statewide data on intensive care unit hospital admissions and positive flu tests shows a sharp drop-off this year — and the timing ties directly to the statewide stay-at-home order.
While some data that public health officials typically use to track the spread of flu was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because the viruses have similar symptoms, other data confirms this year’s flu spread was worse than last year’s, said IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
Registered nurse Claire Nelson uses hand sanitizer before seeing a patient at Elmhurst Hospital on Nov. 25, 2019.(Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The most recent data, which goes through April 4, shows that eight children in Illinois died from flu this season, including three in Chicago. Across the country, there have been at least 39 million people stricken with flu, and about 24,000 deaths, including 166 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While that’s more than in recent years, according to the CDC, it remains less severe than the 2017-18 season, considered to be the most deadly in decades, when 49 million people were sickened and nearly 80,000 died, including 188 children — nine of them in Illinois.
It’s possible that this year’s flu spread could’ve been worse, Landon said, if it weren’t for the virtual shutdown of the country due to COVID-19.
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Landon said when she and her colleagues first started hearing of the new virus, she wondered how hospitals would handle the influx of patients during flu season.
“I thought, this is not going to work,” she said. “We were already dealing with this horrible flu season. How can we do both of these things at the same time?”
But the constant messaging regarding hand-washing and staying home when sick did its job, she said. “They were doing the things we want them to do every year because it’s flu season.”
While the pandemic is a tragedy, Landon said, one silver lining could be a future impact on influenza. A combination of vaccination, plus use of anti-viral medication works best with good public health practices, she said. “People underestimate it.”
“If we get anything out of this of this experience, we now have a really educated public on how to stop the spread of infections.”
