This season experiences highest number of flu cases in years

By Madison Kasper •

 

 

Flu season typically takes place each year from October to May. According to AdventHealth’s website, the peak of flu season is from December through February. Records show that this year’s flu season is the worst in at least 15 years. As a part of Mako Media Health Update, Aarti Raja, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discussed the flu and how to prevent getting it.

Q: What is the flu?

A: The flu is a highly contagious respiratory tract disease that is spread by a virus, which is the influenza virus, which we call the flu virus.

Q: What are the symptoms of the flu?

A: The symptoms mainly include a sore throat and a cough accompanied by fever. And the classic symptom of the flu is fever accompanied by chills. You can feel cold at times and then hot at times, and then the usual runny nose, weakness or fatigue that you just feel tired all the time. These are the main classic symptoms of the flu.

Q: How can the flu be treated?

A: For an average, healthy individual, the basic treatment is just getting rest. Isolate yourself, drink lots of fluids and take a rest. But there are cases where it can become a severe case of the flu. And for those instances, there are what we call antivirals or medication that can be taken against the influenza virus. There are currently four available on the market.

Q: Recently it came out that this flu season has been the most intense it’s ever been in the past at least 15 years. Why is that?

A: One of the reasons is simply because we’ve kind of forgotten what pre-COVID days looked like. The numbers right now are actually closer to pre-COVID days, which is kind of like saying that’s normal. During the Covid years, we were more careful about a lot of things. We were isolated; we were using more protection for our nose and our faces. We probably weren’t spreading the flu around as much. Now that we’ve done away with all those precautions in place, the flu numbers seem to be going up. One of the other reasons as well is, there are fewer vaccinations that are happening against the flu, which might explain some of the increased numbers in flu cases.

Q: What vaccines are available?

A: Yearly we have vaccines available against influenza. If individuals go in and get vaccinated, then you will be protected against this virus or against getting the disease. And even if you do get the virus, your disease burden is lowered, which basically just means you’re not going to have an extreme case of the disease and an individual will be prevented from getting to a hospital. You will be much more protected than if you never took the vaccine and ended up getting the flu.

Q: Any last thoughts?

A: The same thing, because we’re all in close proximity with each other on a daily basis. The best way to prevent or protect yourself would be to get that vaccine on a yearly basis. If you’re unable to get it, then at least add these precautions to your daily life. Wash your hands well, keep yourself away from someone who may be sick, and if someone is sick, be aware of the fact that you might want to keep yourself away from the rest of the crowd.