Oregon Health Officials Confirm Season's First Flu Case

“Routine immunization of all children will help protect others in the community, because as more people get vaccinated, the spread of disease is reduced.”- Dr. Paul Cieslak, M.D.

Photo courtesy: CDC

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon’s first confirmed influenza case of the season has been reported to the Oregon Department of Human Services Public Health Division, state officials announced today.

The case of influenza B occurred in a Washington County man in his 20s. The patient is recovering.

"Flu has arrived in Oregon and more people will be getting sick from it,” said Dr. Paul Cieslak, M.D., program manager for the Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention program in DHS.

"This is a good time to prevent it by getting vaccinated. Take advantage of any opportunity you have to get the vaccine."

Cieslak pointed out that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended this year for the first time that all children aged 6 months to 18 years be vaccinated.

“We track patients who are hospitalized with influenza in the Portland area, and we have found that children under age 5 are just as likely as people over the age of 65 to be hospitalized with influenza," Cieslak said.

School-aged children are not as likely to require hospitalization, but they do have the highest rates of illness with influenza.

“Routine immunization of all children will help protect others in the community, because as more people get vaccinated, the spread of disease is reduced,” Cieslak said.