Flu season has hit the South Plains.
Covenant Medical Center looked at their flu reports from December 24 to January 20. Each week, the positive flu rates have gone up. During the week of December 24 to December 30, there was a 21% positive rate reported.
The most recent numbers, for the week of January 14-20, showed the positive flu rate increased to 35%.
“People get really knocked out with this flu, there’s a lot of fatigue, it’s hitting pretty hard this year,” Dr. Ron Skaria said.
Dr. Skaria is a primary care, sports medicine physician with Covenant Medical Group.
“Flu symptoms usually hit you pretty quickly, a lot of body aches, fatigue, high fevers, heart can be beating faster, people can get the chills, and this flu this year, we’ve seen a lot of nausea and vomiting as well,” he said.
He has some advice to try to help you keep the flu from spreading.
“The best way to prevent flu in the household is for everyone to have their flu shot and take good measures, like good hand washing and avoiding people who are sneezing or coughing or who are, just cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze to help prevent the spread of the virus,” Dr. Skaria said.
He also has some advice on what to do if you’re sick.
“If you have flu-like symptoms or you’re diagnosed with the flu, you are contagious for up to one day after you have symptoms, so that typically runs 5 to 6 days,” he said. “So to help prevent the flu, it’s always safe to stay home, get a doctors note, not go into work.”
