The number of flu cases is up over last year, reports the Texas County Health Department.
The timing of flu is unpredictable and can vary from season to season. Locally, the Texas County Health Department is monitoring influenza activity weekly to determine if the number of cases appear to have peaked and if the key flu activity indicators fell.
The agency’s communicable disease surveillance system monitors a number of health indicators on a year round basis, including flu. Data compiled from a number of sites – including schools, daycares, Texas County Memorial Hospital, and area physicians’ offices – give an overall picture of current health trends.
So far, Texas County’s 2012-’13 flu season stands at 99 lab confirmed cases. By comparison, the previous season featured a relatively light 17 cases, while 64 cases were documented in 2010-’11. Health department officials point out that it’s important to note that some increases in the numbers can be attributed to improved surveillance systems and increased influenza lab testing by physicians.
Flu activity most commonly peaks in January or February, but can begin as early as October and continue to occur as late as May. Most of the United States is now experiencing high levels of influenza-like-illness (ILI), according to the Center for Disease Control.
The health department says while interest in flu vaccination remains steady since seasonal clinics began early last fall, vaccine supplies are beginning to dwindle within the county. It takes up to two weeks for protection to develop after the shot and protection lasts for about a year.
While getting a flu shot is still the best way to prevent influenza, the importance of taking basic everyday measures must not be overlooked in helping minimize the spread of influenza within the community.
The health department offered these tips:
––Wash your hands (well and often) and use hand sanitizers. Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact, like when someone who has the flu and sneezes onto their hand, then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours – in some cases weeks – only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. Washing your hands well (for at least 20 seconds) and often helps. If no sink is available, use hand sanitizer containing at least 60 percent alcohol.
––Don’t cover your sneezes and coughs with your hands, but instead use the “Dracula Cough.” Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, do the “Dracula Cough,” and cough or sneeze into your inner elbow or upper arm. Or use a tissue, throw it away immediately, then wash your hands.
––Don’t touch your face. Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth, so face touching is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents.
––Stay home when sick. If you are ill with flu or other respiratory illness stay home (or keep your child at home) for at least 24 hours after fever is gone unless necessary, such as leaving home to seek medical care.
––Clean common use surfaces. At home, in offices or other public places, particularly during flu and cold season, frequent cleaning of touched objects and surfaces such as doorknobs, keyboards, and phones helps to minimize transference of germs.
For more information, call the Texas County Health Department at 417-967-4131.
The health department says while interest in flu vaccination remains steady since seasonal clinics began early last fall, vaccine supplies are beginning to dwindle within the county.