Aggressive flu season for hoosiers

Flu season is here and Indiana is starting to see the effects.

South Bend resident, Erica Warren says, “a lot of people at work have gotten the flu.”

Indiana is one of the 25 states deemed having high flu activity— which seems to be setting root in Michiana.

Doctor Bob Cassady of the South Bend Clinic says, “We’re just starting to see more cases honestly it’s not it hasn’t been crazy bad i guess i would say so far yeah definitely seeing more cases this month.”

Erica Warren lives in South Bend---and says that her place of work is seeing this increase and asking people to be honest with how they are feeling.

Warren says her work is, “telling people to stay home you don’t want to spread it around because we work in a very tight office so you don’t want to give it to everybody.”

Because the flu virus can spread fast—from droplets from sneezes, coughs, or simply talking.

7 Hoosiers have died already this year from the flu.

Warren was shocked and says, “that blows my mind it’s just means people need to get their flu shots and you need to keep an eye on each other.”

But this unfortunately isn’t too surprising.

Doctor Cassady was sad to say, “people die every year in the hundreds of thousands and some years are worse than others so it’s not surprising people would die from the flu especially people in high risk age groups.”

The CDC points out that in those deaths this year, almost everyone is in that 65 and older age group, which is one of the populations with a high risk of contracting the flu in general.

And aside from age, the type of flu being seen this early on is different as well.

Doctor Cassady says he has mainly seen type B so far this year.

And for those patients who are seeing intense, lingering symptoms such as high fevers, body aches and cough those doctors can prescribe anti-viral medications.

Doctor Cassady says, “those medicines are helpful at limiting the duration of the illness and sometimes limiting how sever the illness can be.”

But for everyone trying to do all they can to prevent sickness,  flu shots are recommended among other healthy habits, even now into January.

Doctor Cassady says, “it’s definitely still worth it yup! As long as we’re still seeing cases of it of the flu coming up in the community you should get vaccinated it takes a couple days to a week or so to develop some immunities.”

But we all have to remember, unfortunately the flu is a virus.

Doctor Cassady says, “it is a virus we just kinda have to help wait it out support you make sure you’re staying hydrated not having complications like pneumonia or anything afterwards.”

And Doctor Cassady told me that for our part of the country the flu usually starts to die down after the New Year but cases still pop up into February and March.

So while the flu is still prevalent, protecting yourself and being honest with your symptoms can help bring you and the people around you peace of mind.