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Mild winter helps improve health

Jenny Green, infection control specialist with The Fort Hamilton Hospital, shows the transmission-based isolation precautions used to prevent infections from passing to other susceptible patients and staff, Friday.

Staff photo by Greg Lynch Jenny Green, infection control specialist with The Fort Hamilton Hospital, shows the transmission-based isolation precautions used to prevent infections from passing to other susceptible patients and staff, Friday.

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By Rick McCrabb, Staff Writer 9:09 PM Friday, February 10, 2012

During this mild, yet wet winter, area residents have left their heavy coats in the closet and their snow shovels in the garage.

That has added up to a healthier winter so far, according to health officials.

They say the warmer temperatures have allowed people to spend more time outdoors than normal, which has increased their physical activity, and reduced the chance of spreading germs.

But health experts said, there’s at least two increased health risks associated with the unseasonable warm temperatures: higher pollen counts that are impacting allergy sufferers; and disease-carrying insects aren’t being killed during the winter.

Since viruses — not cold weather — cause influenza, and viruses spread most effectively in cold, dry air, there are fewer cases of influenza being reported because people are spending more time outdoors, said Dr. Dale J. Block, who is on the staff at Atrium Medical Center.

He has seen a “relatively few” cases of flu this year.

Jenny Green, a registered nurse and infection control specialist at Fort Hamilton Hospital, said only one case of influenza that required hospitalization has been reported there, a trend, she said, that’s common throughout the Greater Cincinnati region.

“That’s very low for this time of year,” Green said.

She said the decrease in flu cases can be credited vaccination compliance, more so than the warm temperatures.

But she warns that the “peak season” for the flu has not arrived yet, and could last through May.

Jenny Bailer, nursing director for the Butler County Health Department, said the theory that the mild winter has led to less illness and healthier residents “makes sense.” But she has noticed that illnesses tracked by the department are basically “unchanged for the most part.”

Block and Jackie Phillips, City of Middletown health commissioner, said the warmer weather has created health risks.

Block said he’s seeing a greater number of allergy sufferers who are complaining of running noses, itchy eyes and congestion.

Because of the wet and mild winter, Block said, people need to check their homes for mold. He said those who typically suffer from hay fever are especially susceptible to mold.

Phillips said germ-carrying insects that typically are killed during the cold months may survive and be even more of a health risk in the spring and summer.

If the area received, as predicted, 1 to 2 inches of snow Friday through this morning, it would the first measurable snowfall of the season.

Mike Gallagher, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wilmington, said the area has received 2 inches of snow this season when the average is 10.1 inches. He said the area received only 1.6 inches of snow in January when the average is 6.5 inches.

The average temperature for the area in January was 35.3 degrees, nearly 5 degrees warmer than normal, according to Gallagher. And nationwide, last month was the third least-snowy for the United States since snow records began in 1966.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.

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