Have you been hit by the flu this season?

By Jeff Wilson

It feels like every season, the tales of "He caught tha

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t bug that's going around," get worse and worse. Today the Signal has an interesting report on the SCV's flu season this year that kind of confirms:

This year is worse than last year in terms of severity (of symptoms),” he said. “The rate of patients coming in for flu symptoms has remained about the same. It all just came at once in mid December.”

Sylvia West, a Facey Clinic representative, also said it’s typical that January sees a spike in influenza cases with the season starting in September when the company receives their vaccines.

Anticipating the spike in cases for January, the company gave out 7,000 more influenza vaccines than the previous year after seeing an increase in cases.

So there aren't necessarily more cases of the flu in the SCV this year, but the potency is stronger this year. Am I reading that right?

This stuff takes on a whole new meaning when you have kids (yeah, suddenly you can't be so selfish and cocksure about everything in life, imagine that!). Something's run through my brother Scott's family in the last several weeks, and it's hitting his 3 month old son pretty hard.

If you're a parent, what do you do? Keep your kids out of day care/school? Is that an overreaction? My son is still at home all day and I'm your standard isolated desk worker who drives alone to work now (rather than taking the bus as I used to), but the same is true of my brother and his family's not been spared.

Comments (6)

VickiThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 11:01 am

I actually didn't know the flu was going around, so thanks for posting. Of course now that I say that, we'll get hit. Haha (knock on wood). I have 2 school-aged kids, and I think if it got really bad at school, I might consider keeping them out of school so they wouldn't catch it, although I probably wouldn't do that. I guess I just rely on other parents to keep their sick kids home, and to make sure they're fever-free and diarrhea-free for at least 24 hours before coming back to school. I follow that rule now that I work from home and it's much more do-able, but I admit I didn't always follow the 24-hour rule when the kids were younger and both my husband and I were working full-time. It was just too hard to swing it. I feel really badly about that now. And, while not fail-safe, I do make my kids wash their hands immediately after school, as well as making them change their clothes (shirts at least) and blow their noses. I try hard to get them to bed on time so they get enough sleep (we try for 10 hours), and I try to feed them healthy foods (including something fresh at each meal) to keep their immune systems as strong as I can. I guess I err heavily on the side of prevention since it's the only thing I can control to any extent.

timothymyers02Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 11:10 am

No flu with us, but we don't have any kids at home (anymore) and we both got the flu shot.

Keith DavisThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 12:30 pm

We've not had any, but on the 16 of this month, one of or friends from Big Bear died from complications from the flu. We're going up there SAT. for a "celebration of life service". Ron was about 60 & was in good health. It just goes to show you how fragile life is.

ValerieThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 1:58 pm

Vaccinate yourself and vaccinate your child. My son is almost 14 months and we made sure he got both flu shots and is up to date on all others. Did you know there was a whooping cough outbreak at Saugus High? VACCINATE YOURSELF AND VACCINATE YOUR CHILD. Wash your hands frequently, wash their hands frequently. That's all you can do.

timothymyers02Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 2:25 pm

Cosign, Valerie. As parents of five we advise strongly to use Western medicine to its maximum capacity.

Sarah RobbinsThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 8:35 pm

We have five children, too. We've been diffusing essential oils (Germ Fighter by Plant Therapy) and we haven't had any illness in the house for two seasons. Our daughter had a runny nose and mild cough which cleared overnight with the oils. My husband is a physician, and he admits he's shocked by how well these oils work. There are several good companies out there (Doterra, Young's, etc). We use the Plants Therapy brand because of the high quality/ low cost. Just putting it out there...

VickiThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 11:01 am
I actually didn't know the flu was going around, so thanks for posting. Of course now that I say that, we'll get hit. Haha (knock on wood). I have 2 school-aged kids, and I think if it got really bad at school, I might consider keeping them out of school so they wouldn't catch it, although I probably wouldn't do that. I guess I just rely on other parents to keep their sick kids home, and to make sure they're fever-free and diarrhea-free for at least 24 hours before coming back to school. I follow that rule now that I work from home and it's much more do-able, but I admit I didn't always follow the 24-hour rule when the kids were younger and both my husband and I were working full-time. It was just too hard to swing it. I feel really badly about that now. And, while not fail-safe, I do make my kids wash their hands immediately after school, as well as making them change their clothes (shirts at least) and blow their noses. I try hard to get them to bed on time so they get enough sleep (we try for 10 hours), and I try to feed them healthy foods (including something fresh at each meal) to keep their immune systems as strong as I can. I guess I err heavily on the side of prevention since it's the only thing I can control to any extent.
timothymyers02Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 11:10 am
No flu with us, but we don't have any kids at home (anymore) and we both got the flu shot.
Keith DavisThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
We've not had any, but on the 16 of this month, one of or friends from Big Bear died from complications from the flu. We're going up there SAT. for a "celebration of life service". Ron was about 60 & was in good health. It just goes to show you how fragile life is.
ValerieThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Vaccinate yourself and vaccinate your child. My son is almost 14 months and we made sure he got both flu shots and is up to date on all others. Did you know there was a whooping cough outbreak at Saugus High? VACCINATE YOURSELF AND VACCINATE YOUR CHILD. Wash your hands frequently, wash their hands frequently. That's all you can do.
timothymyers02Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Cosign, Valerie. As parents of five we advise strongly to use Western medicine to its maximum capacity.
Sarah RobbinsThursday, January 30th, 2014 at 8:35 pm
We have five children, too. We've been diffusing essential oils (Germ Fighter by Plant Therapy) and we haven't had any illness in the house for two seasons. Our daughter had a runny nose and mild cough which cleared overnight with the oils. My husband is a physician, and he admits he's shocked by how well these oils work. There are several good companies out there (Doterra, Young's, etc). We use the Plants Therapy brand because of the high quality/ low cost. Just putting it out there...