Health dept.: ‘Significant increase’ in flu-like illnesses

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October 26, 2012

Health dept.: ‘Significant increase’ in flu-like illnesses

Andrew McGee Suwannee Democrat The Suwannee Democrat Fri Oct 26, 2012, 12:32 PM EDT

Live Oak — It’s flu season again and the Suwannee County Health Department is urging residents and visitors to take precautions to limit their risk of exposure to seasonal flu. Although the health department has not received any laboratory confirmed cases of influenza this season, they are seeing a significant increase in the number of individuals with flu-like illnesses especially in children.

“The most effective precautions we can take to fight the flu are to get vaccinated against the flu virus and practice good hygiene,” said SCHD Director Pamela Blackmon. “This season, everyone six month and older should get vaccinated, even if they got a vaccine last season. These simple precautions lessen your risk of exposure of the virus or transmission to others.” Blackmon said the number of flu vaccines that the department has given has declined over the last several years due to other providers giving them out, such as local pharmacies. For the time period Sept. 1 through Oct. 25 of this year, the department has administered 172 flu vaccines compared to 256 in the same time period last year.

Be sure to watch for symptoms of the flu, such as headache, fever, a severe cough, runny nose or body aches. Contact your primary care physician or a local hospital if symptoms appear.

Other preventative steps for the flu:

* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue whenever you cough or sneeze, then dispose of the tissue.

* Wash your hands often with soap and water.

* Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth because germs spread this way

* Try to avoid close contact with sick people

* If you are sick with flu-like illness, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities (your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)

Can one get the same flu twice?

“Getting infected with any influenza virus, should cause your body to develop immune resistance to that particular virus, so it's not likely that a person would be infected with the identical influenza virus more than once,” said Margaret Wooley, comprehensive health director for Suwannee County Schools.

However, people with weakened immune systems might not develop full immunity after infection and might be more likely to get infected with the same influenza virus more than once.

According to Wooley, it's also possible that a person could have a positive test result for flu infection more than once in an influenza season. This can occur for two reasons:

A person may be infected with a different influenza virus.

Most rapid tests cannot distinguish which influenza virus is responsible for

the illness and influenza tests can occasionally give false positive and false negative

results, so it's possible that one of the test results were incorrect. This is more likely to happen when the diagnosis is made with the rapid flu tests.

Flu shots are available at the Suwannee County Health Department. The department is located at 915 Nobles Ferry Road, Live Oak. For more information, call 386-362-2708

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Health dept.: ‘Significant increase’ in flu-like illnesses

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