Boston declares flu alert

BOSTON - Boston declared a public-health emergency Wednesday as flu season escalated and the state reported 18 flu-related deaths so far.

The city is offering free flu vaccines and hopes to set up places where people can get vaccinated. The city said there had been four flu-related deaths, all elderly, since the unofficial start of the flu season Oct. 1.

"The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family is to get the flu shot," Mayor Thomas Menino said.

The city was experiencing its worst flu season since at least 2009, Menino said, with about 700 confirmed cases, compared with 70 reported all of last season.

Massachusetts was one of 29 states reporting high levels of "influenza-like illness," according to the most recent weekly flu advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvania and New Jersey were also among the 29.

The CDC said the proportion of people visiting health-care providers with flulike symptoms climbed from 2.8 percent to 5.6 percent in four weeks. By contrast, the rate peaked at only 2.2 percent during the relatively mild 2011-12 flu season.

The estimated rate of flu-related hospitalizations in the United States was 8.1 per 100,000 people, which is high for this time of year, according to Joe Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch of the CDC's influenza division.

Barbara Ferrer, director of the Boston Public Health Commission, said the emergency was declared in part to get residents' attention. She said that the 700 confirmed cases represented only those reported to the city.

Boston hospitals had counted about 1,500 emergency-room visits since December by people with flulike symptoms. Menino said people with symptoms should not go to work or school.

Baystate Health, which operates Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and two other hospitals in western Massachusetts, announced it was changing its visitor policy to protect patients and staff members. The hospitals will no longer allow visitors younger than 14 and are recommending no more than two people visit a patient at once.

"This is the worst in several years," said Sarah Haessler, an infectious-disease specialist at Baystate. She said the flu outbreak had strained hospital resources and helped to fill beds to capacity.