{"id":134823,"date":"2026-01-28T11:46:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134823\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:46:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:46:32","slug":"after-10-days-sick-jacksonville-man-urges-others-to-get-flu-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134823\/","title":{"rendered":"After 10 days sick, Jacksonville man urges others to get flu shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 While flu cases are starting to drop, it is still in the peak season.<\/p>\n

This year, flu season started earlier than usual, and it has been much more aggressive than in previous years. This is in part because of a new and stronger variant.<\/p>\n

Shilpa Amin, who is an emergency medicine physician with HCA Florida Memorial Hospital, is seeing hundreds of patients sick with the flu being treated every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a lot of older folks, younger kids having the flu for a couple of days,\u201d Amin said. \u201cThey are out maybe four or five days as opposed to just one or two days that we were seeing before.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED | Doctors warning people not to take flu season lightly as Northeast Florida experiences \u2018super flu\u2019 outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Erb tested positive for B-Strain flu earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not want to get it,\u201d Erb said. \u201cIt will literally put you down, and it makes you feel miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Erb (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Erb said it kept him down for about 10 days before he felt like himself again.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] an awful aching, feeling, headache, runny nose,\u201d he said of his symptoms. \u201cMy energy level was pretty low. Nothing tasted good. Your appetite level goes to close to zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some really easy things people can do right now to not only protect themselves but also anyone who may be around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure that you have your temperature under control,\u201d Amin said. \u201cIf you are spiking a high fever, take Tylenol, Motrin. If you are not able to keep anything down, any food or any water, come to the emergency room right away, where you can get some hydration. Just be mindful. If you are sick or if you are around sick people, [dp] lots of handwashing. Don\u2019t cough near others. If something feels off, come to the emergency room right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of whether or not to get a flu shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your doctor has contraindicated you to get a flu shot previously, don\u2019t get it,\u201d Amin said. \u201cBut if you are healthy and you want to keep the flu away, go get your flu shot. Get it early.\u201d<\/p>\n

When News4JAX asked Amin if that was recommended for a certain demographic, she said \u201ceverybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Erb and his wife. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cGet your flu shot,\u201d Erb said. \u201cIt does minimize the duration, and the symptoms are not as rough. I could not imagine what it would be like if I did not get the flu shot. It probably would\u2019ve been a whole lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amin believes this peak flu season is going to last another two to three weeks or so before possibly improving by mid-February.<\/p>\n

She is reminding people who want to get a flu shot that shots are usually available for free at several places \u2014 that includes Publix, CVS, your primary care doctor, and urgent care. <\/p>\n

People do not have to schedule appointments to get one. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 While flu cases are starting to drop, it is still in the peak season. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[571,61569,116,118,117,5436],"class_list":["post-134823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-health","tag-healthier-tomorrow","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-morning-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}