Severe Flu Cases Just Keep Rising: CDC

The respiratory flu brings fever, severe body aches and respiratory congestion far worse than a common cold.

“Typically the flu will come on very quickly”.

Finding empty rooms at Aurora BayCare’s emergency room in Green Bay isn’t easy these days with so many people coming in with the flu. If a different new strain would begin to develop, there would be no way for the CDC to detect it.

The flu season has strained the hospital, which at times has been running low on hospital beds and flu testing kits as well as staff who aren’t out sick, Stock said.

She warned that elderly people and those with pre-existing medical conditions, such as diabetes and lung disease, should especially seek medical help because they are more prone to serious infection. “But if you are seriously ill and at risk for complications from the flu, contact your medical provider because you may need additional treatment or hospital care”.

“To be completely forthright, in the USA today, there’s such huge numbers of individuals strolling around with no less than one comorbidity – diabetes or hypertension or congestive heart disappointment or COPD – you’re discussing an enormous number of individuals”, said Ardolic.

“In the event that you get influenza and afterward you get pneumonia over your influenza, which is the end result for a considerable measure of these individuals, you’re not going to do well”, he said.

The influenza virus is actually transmitted faster just by breathing rather than by coughing or sneezing, a new study reveals.

They can be passed through sneezes, coughs and touching surfaces that carry the bacteria.

“We found that [people with the] flu … contaminated the air around them with infectious virus just by breathing, without coughing or sneezing”, lead study author Dr. Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, said in the statement. Most importantly it’s not too late to get a flu shot because if you do and still get sick, you should have some immunity to the strains that are circulating. Receiving an annual flu vaccination is one of the most effective ways to prevent the flu.

The Florida Department of Health is reporting 107 outbreaks since the start of the 2017-18 season, that’s more outbreaks than in previous seasons at this time.

“They actually look for the DNA and portions of the virus there that are a little bit more definitive, and they miss fewer of those cases”, says Dr. Threlkeld. “The 2018 flu season is the worst year I’ve ever seen in a hospital”.

The CDC notes that this year’s vaccine is only expected to be about 32 percent effective because H3N2 tends to mutate.

‘Supporting one’s immune system with good rest and adequate hydration may help reduce the severity of symptoms, ‘ said Dr Secemsky.

That means that if you are unlucky enough to get the flu, “staying home and out of public spaces could make a difference”, Ehrman said.