How to get through flu season

If it appears that everyone around you is getting sick, you’re not going crazy. The flu season is hitting the United States unusually early and much harder than it usually does.

“This one’s going to be a tricky one. Based on what we’ve been seeing in the southern hemisphere, that season always precedes our own. We kind of go back and forth and we use the strains that we see for the flu in the southern hemisphere to prepare our flu vaccines. So they had a very tough flu season. We’re anticipating we’ll have a pretty tough one as well,” says Dr. Dylan Wyatt, ER doctor at St. Luke’s Hospital.

According to him thus far in the southern and southeastern United States, there have been a lot of flu cases and a pretty good flu wave in the US. So we can anticipate as it moves northward, we’ll be affected in the same way. With this upcoming tough season, here are Dr. Dylan’s tips to keeping you and yours healthy during this flu season.

1. Hand- washing, frequently wash your hands anytime you are going out and about.
2. Get vaccinated, for both cold and flu find a vaccination center. This massively reduces your symptom burden that you can get.
3. Keep a close eye on your symptoms. If you start to feel like you’re starting to get a little nasal congestion or a bit of a scratchy throat or a bit of a fever be honest with yourself about those symptoms. If we’re on top of our symptoms, then we won’t expose it to the people around us and furthermore stop the spread of viruses.