If enough of the population gets vaccinated — more than the 45% who did last flu season — it could help head off a nightmare scenario this winter of hospitals stuffed with flu or COVID-19 patients.
Disclosure this week of an eighth case in the United States of a new viral infection emerging from China — in addition to the first confirmed case of the virus passing from person to person in this country — is fueling public concerns about how easily the deadly virus can spread.
There’s a deadly virus spreading from state to state. It preys on the most vulnerable, striking the sick and the old without mercy. In just the past few months, it has claimed the lives of at least 39 children.
The flu season has caught with the Willamette Valley, with an increase in cases from Southern Oregon to Salem to the Portland area in recent weeks.
December 13, 2012 -- Last week, Jennifer Bevacqua, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center, treated a boy who was a year and a half old and had what Bevacqua described as eye motion issues, which can indicate a brain tumor. After being informed that he’d need an emergency MRI, his grandmother – who was the boy's primary caregiver and had taken him to the hospital – called her boss to ask if she could stay with her grandson while he received the care he needed.
