With the holidays upon us, that means flu activity is ramping up. Dr. Julio Figueroa with LSU Health New Orleans says Louisiana has some of the highest prevalence of flu in the country right now.
“It’s about the same timing and about the same extent at this point in time, but we are actually ahead of the nation, compared to other individuals in our surrounding states,” Figueroa said.
Dr. Figueroa says if you’re experiencing flu-like symptoms, the very best thing you can do is to stay home and to stay away from people who are susceptible to illness.
“Those would be infants, and those that would have more problems with respiratory tract infections, as well as individuals who are immunocompromised and older individuals as well,” Figueroa explained.
Figueroa says your very best defense against the flu is to get vaccinated – and it’s not too late to get your flu shot.
“It’s not going to serve you for Thanksgiving, because it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to kind of kick in. But it would serve you for December and January and February,” Figueroa said.
Figueroa points out that this year’s H-3 strain of the virus has a slightly different variant than what’s in the vaccine, although the extent of the mismatch is unclear at this time. The vaccine, however, will protect against all other strains currently circulating.
