Mild flu season hitting its peak in Utah County

In order for a case to be confirmed, an individual has to be tested at a hospital.

The County of Orange Health Care Agency has confirmed Orange County’s first influenza-related death in a person under 65 this season.

“We had over 2500 cases of flu reported to us in Greene County alone so a year ago really was a bad flu season for us”, says Kendra Findley, Administrator of Community Health and Epidemiology with the Greene County Health Department.

Although so far, this flu season has been mild, President DAK and Flu expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan said that does not mean we are out of woods yet.

Pharmacist Jennifer Essary with Grove Pharmacy, said, “Whenever they’re developing flu vaccine they’re actually starting about this time of year to start on next year so it’s guessing game, they’re going off of historical data, what they’re seeing, but viruses mutate so it’s always hard to get it right every year”.

“The vaccine is much better this year”, Rupp said, adding that it has “clearly been effective”.

For the week ending January 16, flu activity in the state was minimal, with Utah County seeing low and moderate flu activity.

The county has seen an increase in the number of cases of both influenza A and influenza B in recent weeks, and eight people under the age of 65 have been hospitalized in intensive care with severe influenza, the statement said.

“The specialists who track how many cases we are having are feeling like this is a fairly average year”, Frank said.

Last year, when the vaccine was not a good match for the actual illness circulating, more people became affected.

This years slow start to the flu season isnt out of ordinary as other seasons have had the same pattern.

An early bump in flu activity originally indicated that it would peak in November.

“If your neighbor has the flu, you may have waited too long”, he said.