After several days of Tylenol and lots of liquids, 2-year-old Elizabeth Wixom's cough persisted. Naturally, her mother, Loriann, worried.

And after watching a Wednesday night news broadcast about a rising flu death toll, Wixom's concern turned to anxiety.

The next morning, Wixom learned that Elizabeth was running a fever at preschool. The junior high teacher found someone to take over her English lessons so she could whisk her daughter to the doctor's office.

The good news is that Elizabeth doesn't have the flu.

The bad news is that doctors have no cure for the "flulike symptoms" Elizabeth and hundreds of other people in the Northern San Joaquin Valley are showing.

Wixom is not alone in her anxiety over influenza.

The virus has led to 11 child deaths nationwide, three of them in Southern California. Health workers said widespread reports about flu deaths in Colorado and the death of a Bakersfield boy are whipping up a panic in the valley.

This week, several Modesto doctors' offices and medical clinics have been crowded with patients reporting flulike symptoms, medical personnel say.

A five- to seven-day bout with fever, coughing and body aches seems to be common, said Dr. Ronald Goldman, medical director of Valley Oak Pediatric Associates.

Doctors also are treating people who are sick to their stomachs, experiencing nausea and vomiting.

But there has been only one verified case of the flu virus in Stanislaus County, state officials reported this week.

Reporting not required

Doctors aren't required to report flu cases to the state, however, and many do not, said

David T. Jones, director of marketing and development for the Stanislaus County Health Ser-vices Agency.

It's also early in the flu season.

Cleopathia Moore, associate director of the Health Services Agency, said the season typically lasts from October to March. She said it peaks between November and February.

Goldman said flu deaths around the country put valley health officials on alert, but doctors need more information to gauge the threat.

"We need to know how many of these children were already at risk with underlying diseases," Goldman said. "Without context, it's hard to reassure parents, because we're not 100 percent sure how bad it is."

Flu shots hard to come by Because a shortage of flu vaccine in the county and elsewhere, many people who want the flu shot can't get it.

Ken Groves, a 48-year-old substitute teacher, was turned away from the county health clinic on Scenic Drive on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

"I just don't want to get it and give it to the kids," said Groves, who is a substitute teacher in Modesto. "I told them I'm a teacher, and they said, 'Oh, well, you must have insurance.' Well, I'm a substitute and I don't. They still couldn't help me."

The county health agency has had to deny flu shots to dozens of people, Jones said. Its original supply of about 7,700 flu vaccines is gone and emergency shipments go fast, Jones said.

Stanislaus County is expecting to receive 1,500 more doses from the state soon, Moore said. The federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention is providing California an emergency shipment of 12,000 flu shots, she said.

The sickest will get shots

The vaccines will be reserved for those who are at highest risk of suffering serious complications from influenza, Moore said. That group includes people older than 50, children from 6 months to 23 months and those with weak immune systems or chronic illnesses.

So far, the county health agency has administered about 8,400 vaccines. Kaiser Permanente reported giving out about 18,000 countywide, according to Dr. Don Kimzey.

Bee staff writer Julissa McKinnon can be reached at 578-2324 or jmckinnon@modbee.com.

Currently, the Public Health Department has no flu vaccine. For information, call 558-8872.

Reprinted by permission of the Modesto Bee.