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RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — Got the flu or something like it?
You're not alone.
Reid Hospital and Reid Physician Associates recorded 172 positive tests for influenza during the week ending Dec. 20 and another 108 cases during the week ending Dec. 27.
But Dr. Thomas Huth, vice president of medical affairs for Reid, isn't prepared to say the flu's peak has passed. And even if those two weeks turn out to represent the highest numbers of the season, that doesn't mean the flu is gone.
"That's not the end of it," he told the Palladium-Item. "You still have half of your cases to go."
Last winter, flu cases continued to be reported for three months after the peak during the first week in January.
And this winter, even as flu numbers appear to be dropping, flu-like illnesses are on the rise.
"There's so much other illness out there that mimics influenza," Huth said. "The majority of people who are sick ... don't have influenza."
Of those recently tested for flu-like symptoms in the Reid network, only 25 percent actually had influenza.
It's not too late (to get a flu shot). It's just a part of the normal package of things you do to protect yourself from the flu.
–Dr. Thomas Huth
That means a lot of people out there coughing, sneezing and feeling rotten are doing so because of some other illness.
Huth recommends taking precautions such as practicing good hygiene and getting a flu shot.
It's not too late, he said. "It's just a part of the normal package of things you do to protect yourself from the flu."
Huth acknowledges this winter's vaccine might not be as effective as in some years. The biggest strain — H3N2 — had significant genetic mutation after the vaccine was developed.
But the vaccine includes and is effective against several different strains. Don't avoid it because of one possible weakness, he said.
Huth has heard people say they won't get a flu shot because it makes them sick. He said there are so many illnesses going around when shots are given, it's impossible to say where an illness was contracted — and it's unlikely to have been from the shot.
Others avoid the shot because of a possible serious neurological side effect called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Huth pointed out the flu itself is a more frequent cause of the syndrome than the flu vaccine is. Both cases are very rare.
Visit immunize-utah.org to use the state's flu shot locator to find a clinic near you.
The flu shot does not offer protection from flu-like illnesses.
That's where good respiratory hygiene comes into the picture. The more people who are sick, the more good practices matter.
Reid staff members expressed enough concern about the coughing and sneezing they had observed that the hospital recently tightened restrictions for visitors to the Mother and Baby Care Center and the Intensive Care Unit.
Visitors must be immediate family members and, in the case of the Mother and Baby Care Center, 18 or older.
"The concern really is about those other viruses as much as it is about influenza," said Huth.
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Information from: Palladium-Item, http://www.pal-item.com
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