FLU FILLS UP HOSPITALS; REELING FACILITIES FORCED TO REDIRECT PATIENTS.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

The flu has reached epidemic proportions in Los Angeles County this month, saturating doctors' offices and emergency rooms, and forcing health officials Tuesday to warn against unnecessary hospital visits.

The influx has been so severe in the days since Christmas that nearly all of the county's 81 hospitals have requested that ambulances divert patients to less-crowded facilities.

Health officials report emergency room waits of up to five hours, rapidly disappearing bed space and a shortage of help as nurses themselves fall victim to the debilitating bug.

Some emergency room physicians said they were seeing twice the number of patients as usual for the flu season.

Physicians also are seeing large numbers of flu-related illnesses, such as asthma attacks and, especially among the elderly, pneumonia.

At many hospitals, patients were being admitted in unusually large numbers.

``We're just brimming over with patients right now,'' said Steve Willis, spokesman at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

With children out of school because of the winter holidays, the outbreak could have been considerably worse among the younger set.

However, doctors are seeing a greater percentage of critically ill patients among the elderly, many of them sick with pneumonia, doctors said.

On Tuesday, 46 hospitals with saturated emergency rooms sought ambulance diversion, but most requests were turned down because paramedics simply had nowhere else to take patients, said Virginia Hastings, the county's director of emergency medical services.

``The real crisis is for the hospitals, figuring out how to handle patients,'' Hastings said.

People who summon ambulances could experience delays, as paramedics wait longer at hospitals to transfer patients over to nurses or doctors, Hastings said.

Shirley Fannin, director of the county's disease control programs, said the outbreak is the worst she's seen in about 15 years. The culprit is Influenza A Wuhan - or H3N2 - a strain that has been predominant in the world since 1967.

However, infectious disease specialists are checking to find out whether a new strain called Influenza A Sydney, blamed in two cruise ship outbreaks, has found its way to Southern California.

The Wuhan flu has a sudden onset, marked by high fever, sore throat or cough, and body aches and pains. Except in mild cases, most patients are bedridden.

In children, the flu can develop into middle-ear infections and sinusitis.

Fannin emphasized that the current flu outbreak is completely unrelated to the Hong Kong flu linked to chickens.

But not all physicians agreed that this year's outbreak is anything unusual.

``It's busy, but I don't think it's worse than any other year,'' said Dr. Norman Levin, a Tarzana pediatrician and endocrinologist.

Levin said the upswing in visits to doctors might be the result of alarm spread through the media.

Still, Fannin appealed Tuesday to people to avoid non-essential visits to emergency rooms and doctors' offices, so that physicians and hospital space will be available for the seriously ill.

``If you don't have to go to your doctor's office or the hospital, don't,'' she said.

Dr. Arleen Rockoff, an infectious disease specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills, said otherwise healthy people who come down with the flu usually can treat themselves the old-fashioned way, with plenty of bed rest, hot soup, fluids and Tylenol or acetaminophen.

Except in cases requiring antibiotics, that's all a doctor would prescribe anyway. Plus, you'll save yourself a long wait in a hospital emergency room, sitting alongside other people who are feverish, achy and coughing, doctors said.

But patients with lung disease, diabetes, or immunosuppressive problems should not hesitate to visit a physician, Rockoff added.

People who want to protect themselves could still get flu shots, but the vaccine won't be effective for at least a couple of weeks.