East Texas health experts warn flu season is ramping up early

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - While flu season is just starting, case counts have ramped up early. According to the CDC, it’s been more than a decade since flu hospitalization rates have been this high, this early in the season.

According to NET Health’s Director of Public Health Emergency Preparedness Russell Hopkins, flu season is typically October to April.

“We’re seeing entry into the flu season at a higher level than normal,” Hopkins said.

According to the Department of State Health Services, cases of flu-like illnesses at the start of the flu season have doubled since before the pandemic. In October 2019, DSHS reports the percentage of visits to the hospital for the flu was 2%. This October, that number is at 4%, a concern as flu season has just started.

“Just where we’re entering into the season is concerning because it’s just going to get colder, wetter, and people are going to congregate more,” Hopkins said.

According to the CDC, there have been at least 880,000 illnesses, nearly 7,000 hospitalizations, and 360 deaths from flu in the US so far this season.

“That is a pretty good sign that it’s both easily infectious and pretty prone to make people sick,” UT Health East Texas Regional Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Cummins said.

In 2020, Hopkins said cases were down when we saw more masks and hand washing, “That should translate into mitigation and flu cases, but we haven’t seen that.”

So why are flu cases at a higher rater earlier in the season?

“I’m not real sure, although some of the circumstantial evidence is we had an early freeze,” Hopkins said. “It may be a more variant strand of the flu, or strain of the flu that we’ve seen in a while, but time will tell,” Dr. Cummins said.

Both Hopkins and Dr. Cummins said in the meantime, the best thing to do is to get a flu vaccine.

“It does help decrease the severity of your symptoms and decrease the likelihood of being hospitalized,” Dr. Cummins said.

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