Flu Season Started Late, Will Continue for Weeks: CDC

Just when you thought the flu season was over, it isn’t.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its most recent report shows increasing cases of influenza in the United States and it’s expected to continue for several weeks.

The CDC’s FluView report for the region New York State is in shows elevated out-patient activity related to flu for the current week.

New York is included in Region 2, which also covers New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The federal health organization said this season’s vaccine is nearly 60 percent effective against all currently circulating viruses.

The CDC also said it’s not too late to get your flu shot.

That is something Dr. Carlos Flores, medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, agrees with.

If you haven’t yet gotten your flu shot, Flores said you should do it.

“We still have another month or two,” he said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a safe vaccine.”

Flores did say that it’s not 100 percent effective, as the CDC indicated.

“But it does work,” he said. “I wish more people would get it.”

The emergency department at NYP/Lawrence has been seeing more people coming in with symptoms of the flu.

“They are feeling miserable,” Flores said, “with a lot of upper respiratory problems. They’re feeling like a truck ran over them.”

He said no one has figured out why the flu season started so late.

In past seasons, people would get sick by mid- to late-December.

“Maybe it’s the nature of the specific strain,” Flores said.

What if You Get Sick?

And what can people do if they get the flu?

Nothing will cure the flu once you get it, Flores said, but if you start Tamiflu, an antiviral medication, within two days of getting symptoms, it does help.

“It decreases the duration of the flu,” he said, “but it doesn’t cure you.”

The best you can hope for, Flores said, is shaving off a couple of days of illness.

Prevention is the best way to go, which includes getting a flu shot, he said.

Flores recommended “cough etiquette,” along with frequent hand washing and carrying alcohol-based hand cleanser.

“Getting the flu shot is the key thing,” he said. “I would get it unless there are contraindications.”

The CDC recommends a yearly flu shot for everyone 6 months and older.

People who should not get the vaccine include those with severe, life-threatening allergies, those who have had Guillain-Barre Syndrome and those who are not feeling well.

As always, it's best to check with your doctor.