Flu cases ‘very high’ in New Mexico. Which counties had highest rates?

New Mexico residents during their medical appointments are being advised to get their flu shot as infections of the respiratory virus spike in parts of the state.

New Mexico was one of seven states across the country where influenza cases were among the highest for the week ending Jan. 13, according to an interactive map of influenza cases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The weekly influenza summary update shows only Tennessee rated worst, while New Mexico, South Carolina and Louisiana had the second-highest level of activity. Rounding out the list of states registering a "very high rate" of flu-like illnesses were Alabama, Georgia and Wyoming.

New York City also had a very high rate, although flu activity was rated as only moderate across New York state.

Where flu cases were high in New Mexico

In New Mexico, flu activity was at its highest in Sandoval, Bernalillo, Valencia and Torrance counties during that same period, according to the New Mexico Department of Health’s influenza and respiratory disease online summary. The severity of flu season in each of those counties was rated as very high.

Luna, Eddy and Curry counties each were registering high activity. San Juan, Otero and Lea counties were showing moderate activity.

The remainder of New Mexico counties were reporting low or minimal activity, or they did not report sufficient data to be evaluated.

Flu season comes early

While the infection rate in San Juan County was not as high as in some parts of the state, Eva Rojas, the infection control manager at the San Juan Regional Medical Center, said the flu certainly is making its presence felt.

“We have been experiencing a high volume of positivity, and it has come a little earlier in the season than we anticipated,” she said.

Rojas said flu activity in San Juan County began to pick up in the fall, shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, adding, “We’ve been hit hard in the last month.”

Moving past the peak

Still, Rojas said there are indications the worst already may be over in San Juan County.

“It looks like there’s been a downturn in the last week, although those numbers are not reflected in the data,” she said, referring to the fact that the most-recent-figures available to the CDC can be a week old.

The early arrival of the flu in San Juan County this year stands in contrast to last year, when flu activity didn’t peak until spring, Rojas said.

“Last year, we had a high volume of flu even after flu season was officially over,” she said, noting the March 31 deadline. “Even in April and May, we were experiencing a high volume.”

For the past several years, the severity of and the arrival of flu season have been increasingly difficult to predict, Rojas said.

“It’s kind of like throwing darts at the wall right now,” she said. " … The pattern seems to be, there’s no a pattern for the last couple of years.”

Flu shot effectiveness and vaccination rates

Statistics on the effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine are not yet available, but numbers cited on the CDC website show last year’s vaccine was 54% effective at preventing influenza infections. That was the highest figure since the 2010-2011 flu season and it represented a dramatic improvement over the 2021-22 season’s figure of just 36%.

Hospital spokeswoman Laura Werbner said 236 people received a vaccine during the hospital’s free, drive-thru flu immunization clinics on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, a significant drop from the 347 vaccines that were administered in the fall of 2022 by the hospital. But she pointed out that the free immunization clinics have been seeing a decline in participation for the past few years as flu vaccines have become more readily available through pharmacies and retail outlets.

With that thought in mind, Rojas said the lower numbers the hospital staff has been seeing at its drive-thru clinics does not necessarily mean fewer people are opting to receive a vaccination. She also offered an additional explanation for the decline in participation at the hospital events.

“I do think there are a lot of individuals who don’t believe in getting (vaccinated) early in the season,” she said, explaining that some of those folks may be waiting until flu season approaches its peak to get a shot. “I think there are certainly a lot of people out there seeking vaccinations.”

Rojas credited the staff members of local physicians with doing their part to encourage patients to become vaccinated.

“That’s one of the first questions they ask you, regardless of the reason for your visit,” she said.

The CDC reports that the national vaccination coverage rate for all adults in the United States, including Puerto Rico was 46.8% on Jan. 6, with state rates ranging from 36% to 64.9%. New Mexico’s flu vaccination coverage rate for adults was in the middle of the pack for the week ending Jan. 6, coming in somewhere between 46.4% and 48.6%, according to the CDC.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: New Mexico one of seven states with ‘very high’ flu activity, CDC says