Eau Claire (WQOW) - Doctors say they don't know why this
season's flu is so bad, but they want you to pay attention; they are sounding
the alarm. The nation's top doctors say
no flu season has hit this hard, this fast, in a decade.
Last weekend, a Texas teen died of complications of the
flu. He had been spending the holidays
with his grandparents in Amery. WQOW News 18 spoke with local health experts
about what we need to know.
"We are seeing it
to be a bad flu season this year, different than last year," says Eau
Claire County-City Health Department Director, Lieske Giese.
There weren't any Eau Claire County
residents hospitalized over the entire flu
season a year ago. This season, it's a different story. From October through
mid-December, this year, at least 20 Eau
Claire County
residents have been hospitalized.
"All hospitals are
required to report their hospitalizations related to influenza. It takes a
little time for those to get into the system. So, we're quite certain that
there are many more, just anecdotally talking to those institutions," says
Giese.
Mayo Clinic Health System
Emergency Physician, Dr. Paul Horvath, says, "The reason to come into the
ER for flu treatment is really if you are having particularly severe symptoms.
Symptoms of flu are high fever, body aches, headaches, bad dry hacking cough. There's
a good chunk of people that will get a complication, and will get pneumonia or,
more severe infection, that obviously carries risk, including death, in some of
those really sick people."
The effects of the flu can go beyond
even your health. Dr. Horvath says, "It obviously has a
big economic impact, people can't work. They're out of work, they're not making
money, they can't pay their bills."
But, it's not too late to do
something about this season's full force flu.
The health department encourages people of all ages to get vaccinated.
"Flu season usually
lasts until spring, sometimes longer, so it really is not too late. Once you
get vaccinated you are protected, usually within two weeks," says Giese. "Winters
are long in Wisconsin
and anything you can do to stay healthy is critically important."
Doctors say things like washing your
hands, staying home when you're sick, and getting vaccinated are all keys to
prevention.
Some infectious disease
specialists think the spike in flu cases could be blamed on the drier air. That allows the virus to spread farther.
For
more information on where you can get a flu shot, call 715-839-60-61.
