Charts: The flu virus is still climbing, setting records
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'It's crazy and it's everywhere,' said Dr. Alain Chaoui, a family medicine physician in Peabody who was home sick Thursday but still seeing patients via telemedicine, including an entire family pummeled by the flu.
Chaoui's advice is to
'The first thing I tell patients is rest,' Chaoui said. 'That will help the body fight the virus.'
Who is getting hit the hardest?
While this flu season's powerful second punch is unusual, what is not surprising is the age of patients who are suffering the hardest blows: young children and older adults. State data show the rate of emergency room visits for acute respiratory symptoms are highest among children five and younger, as well as patients over 65.
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Similarly, those who end up being admitted to the hospital are most commonly patients who are 80 and older.
Flu seasons vary in severity, but usually it's people 65 and older who suffer more severe complications, in part because the immune system changes with age making it harder to bounce back from colds and flu.
Is it too late to get vaccinated?
'It's never too late for a shot. Ever,' said Dr. Sandeep S. Jubbal, an infectious diseases specialist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. It would not prevent an infection, but it could make the disease milder, he said
.
Not everyone hospitalized with the flu is there because of its symptoms, said Jubbal. As in years past,he has seen patients admitted for other health problems who also ended up testing positive for flu.
Recently, however, two patients were admitted because of serious complications from the flu. Both had weakened immune systems and, notably, neither had had a flu shot, he said.
Are COVID-19 and RSV still a problem?
Yes,
but the flu has steamrolled right past them, according to
The latest numbers show that roughly 20 percent of emergency department visits in Massachusetts were from patients suffering acute respiratory disease. Nearly half were because of the flu. Only about 1 percent were linked to COVID, and less than a half of one percent attributed to RSV, another respiratory virus.
The rest were not associated with a specific disease. Though there is plenty of respiratory misery going around, said Chaoui, the Peabody family physician.
'There is the common cold, too' he said. 'It's a salad of viruses out there right now.'
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