The Aroostock Medical Center stocked its ER

with masks and

alcohol gel.

BANGOR (AP) – Hospitals have been seeing an increasing number of people with the flu or flu-like symptoms, prompting some to ask patients to wear masks over their faces while they are in waiting areas.

“The volume of people seeking treatment for the flu or flu-related complications had doubled in the last two weeks,” said Dr. Hassan Abouleish, emergency room director at Houlton Regional Hospital. “We have about seven or eight documented cases of the flu, and we have seen at least 40 or more patients with flu-like symptoms.”

Emergency room staff at The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle also are seeing an increasing number of patients with flu symptoms.

Tammy Beaulier-Fuller, the hospital’s infection control coordinator, said the hospital has placed masks and alcohol gel in the emergency room waiting area and is urging visitors to wear the masks.

“I think that the flu has hit faster and sooner than it did last year,” said Beaulier-Fuller. “We have seen a 25 percent increase of people seeking treatment in the past two weeks. People just weren’t ready for it, and they have been forced to seek emergency care.”

Officials at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, and Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor said they have also been seeing a growing number of patients with flu symptoms.

A spokesman at Maine Coast Memorial said the emergency room lobby is “filled with people in yellow masks so that they won’t get sick.”

The Maine Bureau of Health documented the state’s first flu cases in late November.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now categorizes the flu as “widespread” in Maine, meaning outbreaks had been reported in at least half the state. State officials said people seeking treatment for flu-like symptoms accounted for an estimated 10 percent of all visits to health care providers during Christmas week.

“Health care facilities have all been very busy,” said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health. “At this time of year, normally an estimated 1 percent of people are seeking treatment for influenzalike illnesses.”

AP-ES-01-06-04 0217EST