With the recent outbreak of Influenza hitting several states including Iowa, Greene County Medical Center has seen an increase of people seeking medical care with the flu and flu-like symptoms.

Immunization expert and the Maternal Child Health Coordinator with the Greene County Medical Center Becky Wolf says that “the flu season” started earlier this year, in October and November, and it typically is suppose to decrease by the end of February but because of the flu outbreak, she doesn’t believe that trend to continue this year.

Wolf suggests that if people feel like they have the flu or flu-like symptoms, to make appointments with their regular physicians or doctors.  She notes that you shouldn’t use the ER for the flu.  However, when you enter the hospital for care, she asks that you put on a mask to prevent spreading any germs or bacteria.

Wolf advocates those individuals who haven’t received a flu shot to get one.  She explains what the flu vaccine protects against.

“Your vaccine always contains two Influenza Type “A”’s and it also includes a Type B.  Your Type B is a milder form of Influenza.  But the Type A is a more serious, more severe symptoms, you tend to be just pretty darn sick with that.”

She points out that once you’ve contracted Influenza, you are contagious for up to five days.  She wants to remind the public that you should stay home at least for 48 hours before going back to work and the way to not completely get over the flu is people going back to work too soon.  If you don’t take care of Influenza, it can lead to other illnesses such as pneumonia.  You should stay home, drink fluids, get plenty of sleep and get a flu vaccination if you already haven’t gotten one.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>