Influenza A is making an early appearance this season in Erie County. It may have hit your school, workplace or home.
We checked in with Colleen Wallace, Director of Community Health Services at the Erie County Department of health for some data. She confirms it’s here and it showed up early. “So we are seeing a lot of Influenza A, which is actually pret
ty early in the season to see the numbers that we’re seeing, so more than likely you are encountering at least some people with Flu A,” Wallace said.
The Erie County Department of Health dashboard of respiratory diseases shows Flu A climbing toward 1,000 cases. The spike is showing up in wastewater disease tracking as real reporting from primary care physician offices. “When I checked It was 968 confirmed cases, so those are people who are either going to their PCP office or going to the emergency room and getting like the nasal swab and having a confirmatory test.”
Wondering about the symptoms? Wallace gave us the rundown. “Scratchy throat, cough, fever, a lot of times just kind of feeling wiped out and fatigued.”
And as you’ve likely heard, an unexpected mutation of Influenza A surfaced after this year’s vaccine was formulated. It’s a mutation of H3n2 or Subclade K. “So what they projected for this year is missing that Subclade K that you just mentioned, that was not included in this vaccine preparation.”
Still Erie County Health Department officials recommend getting this seasons flu shot if you haven’t already – for the protection it offers for other strains of the virus, or its ability to shorten the intensity or duration of the flu.
And while it’s hard to avoid traveling and gatherings this time of year, if you do have flu symptoms, health department officials ask you to be considerate of others you may put at risk, including the elderly, vulnerable or babies and young children. “I’m not telling people if you have a scratchy throat to stay home, but think about it as opposed to just ignoring it,” nurse Wallace said.