Flu hits Epidemic Levels in Washington and has Claimed 9 Lives in The Start of Flu Season Only, News Report

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Flu has taken epidemic like state in in Washington where four people have of it in the past week alone. The patients are flooding emergency rooms in the local hospitals a hospital staff has to deal with a lot more number patients that a hospital is prepared for.

It is only two weeks into the season of flu and the state has reached the epidemic level recording four deaths and countless cases of flu in just last week.  Swedish hospital received 20 flu patients at its First Hill branch and 3 or 4 times more than this number in its other branches' emergency rooms, King 5 reported.

Steep height in patients' number is observed in King, Thurston, Pierce, and Snohomish counties Multicare Health Systems where the numbers climbed from 27 to 322 in December.

According to 1 News  the highest number of flu patients is recorded in King County in its 5 years history, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin while in Snohomish County the number of patients is constantly doubling each week since the month of December.

The situation is getting serious every day in the state as the staff at hospitals is unable to look after the patients safely. The total lives claimed by flu have reached 9 in the state since the start of flu season. Providence St. Peter Hospital is going to activate a "Disaster Medical Control Center" for the first time in past 10 years.

Malloree Fontanilla is a registered nurse in the emergency room and also oversees "Disaster Medical Control" or DMCC. She expressed her utmost worries from the increasing flu cases and said that this time the activation of "Disaster Medical Control Center" is a rare incident as the influx of the flu patients is extremely high - rising to 20% from 5% every day!

Fontanilla requests the patients to notice their primary flu symptoms and instantly contact a primary care physician to control the symptoms and avid visiting the ER directly.