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Flu Threat Spikes at Beginning of 2015, Cases in NYS Almost Double in a Week

2015newyear.org

  2015 is greeting Central New Yorkers with a renewed threat of the flu virus.  Statewide the number of cases almost doubled in the past week, jumping 90 percent.  Onondaga County's Health Department knows how dangerous the disease can be with two deaths just before the New Year.  

Health Commissioner Doctor Indu Gupta is telling doctors to act fast.

“If you get a phone call regarding a person having flu-like symptoms, or if they have underlying illness, they should have a  low-threshold to treat those patients with Tamiflu and Relenza.  They both are susceptible to this virus at this point.”

ONONDAGA COUNTY FLU CASES AND ADVICE DETAILED HERE.

People also need to be diligent.  Doctor Quoc Nguyen with the health department says don’t mistake symptoms.

“I think at this time of the year, the most common sickness that causes fever, cough, sneeze, headaches, achy all over, is the flu because the common cold doesn’t cause fever.”

AVOIDING THE FLU VIRUS (Source: CDC, Today.com )

  1. Wash your hands. It’ll protect you from all sorts of nasty bugs, from influenza to one of the hundreds of common cold viruses. A quick rinse isn’t enough. You’re trying to remove sticky germs, so lather up, wash the whole hand.  Schools, especially, should encourage and facilitate frequent hand-washing, public health experts say.
  2. Get vaccinated. The flu vaccine isn’t a perfect match for all the flu circulating this year, but it can protect against some of the strains. And experts say even if you get infected, having been vaccinated can reduce the severity of illness.
  3. 3. Clean, clean, clean. It doesn’t take much to kill or remove most germs. Schools should take special care to encourage daily cleaning of desks, doorknobs and keyboards. At work, the coffee pot and computer keyboards are usually the germiest places. Flu viruses don’t live long out in the open –maybe two to eight hours, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises. So the best time to clean is after people have been present for a while.
  4. Keep your distance. It may seem obvious but people can spread flu and other germs by sneezing, coughing or even just by talking. Flu, especially, can spread before people show symptoms and after they are feeling better. But the virus particles do not spread far – a few feet should keep you safe.
  5. Use hand sanitizer. Soap and water is best for removing germs and washing them down the drain, but alcohol-based hand gels can work in a pinch. The CDC advises “natural” products such as witch hazel don’t kill germs much at all. It’s important to use enough of the product, you have to really soak your hands in the gel or foam for it to work.

This season New York State has almost eight thousand confirmed flu cases...last year by this time there had only been about two-thousand.

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.