Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
The nation's current influenza epidemic has sent thousands of Curry, Roosevelt and Quay County residents in search of flu vaccines, and immunization providers report booming business.
County health offices in all three counties report brisk trade in the flu vaccines, leading some to worry about possible shortages before this flu season ends.
Gayla Jaquess, nurse manager of the Curry County health office in Clovis, said she estimates that the office has administered about 5,000 doses of flu vaccines to county residents.
"We're going through them pretty quickly," she said. While she said she is not facing a shortage yet, she has heard that several doctors' offices in the city have run out of vaccine.
Carol Morgan, nurse manager for the Roosevelt County health office, said that office has administered 1,000 doses of the vaccine to adults, 400 to children and distributed another 1,000 to schools in the county. In addition, she said, the office plans to offer vaccines to students at Eastern New Mexico University as they return to school today.
"I think we're going to be fine," she said, "but we've had an awful lot of people get vaccinated this year."
Last year, she said, the office returned several hundred doses to the state department of health.
Jacquelyn Dominguez, nurse manager of the Quay County health office, said they have delivered immunizations to 900 adults, 500 children and 130 younger children.
"We've had a lot more walk-ins this year," she said.
She said the Quay office has only about 130 doses left "and it's early in the season." Last year, she said, the Quay office also returned many vaccine doses to the state.
Statewide, medical visits from people complaining of flu-like symptoms during the week that ended Jan. 5, doubled the rate from the comparable period last year, the New Mexico Department of Health reported. The department said flu sufferers for the week ending Jan. 5 represented 5.1 percent of all medical visits reported, compared to 2.5 percent of the visits last year. Compared to the previous week, however, the percentage for the week of Jan. 5 was down two percentage points.
Last year, cases peaked in late February/early March at about 3.7 percent.
Among admitted patients and emergency room visitors at Plains Medical Center in Clovis, there have been 61 confirmed influenza cases in the first two weeks of January, compared with 46 for the entire month of December, Presbyterian Health Services spokesman Brad Streptow said.
At the Daniel C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, Streptow said, there were 11 cases confirmed in December, and five have been confirmed for the first two weeks of January.
Fast facts
The federal Centers for Disease Control offers this guidance for persons who think they may have the flu. Influenza symptoms can be mild to severe. The flu is different from a cold in that the flu usually comes on suddenly. People who have the flu often feel some or all of these symptoms:
The CDC also points out that anyone can get the flu, and serious problems from influenza can happen at any age. Persons 65 years and older, people of any age with asthma, diabetes, heart disease or other chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, and young children are more at risk for severe illness or even death from the flu.
The CDC offer this advice to prevent the spread of influenza.
