by McKinnon Rice, Fort Worth Report
October 29, 2026

Flu season has kicked off in Tarrant County, and local physicians are reporting an increase in the number of patients they are seeing with flu-like illness.

The onset of the flu virus appears to have occurred earlier than in recent years, and the course this season may be similar to that of 2022-23, said Dr. Bianka Soria-Olmos, a pediatrician at Cook Children’s who works in Haslet.

“Its spike started at the very end of September, kind of peaked right after Halloween, and then luckily started to reach its decline right as Thanksgiving came around,” she said.

Soria-Olmos said the first flu patient in her office this season came in around the end of September. Dr. Justin Ezell, a family medicine physician at Texas Health Family Care, said he has seen an uptick in the number of patients with flu-like illnesses this month.

Soria-Olmos noted that it is normal for the timing of the season to fluctuate year to year.

Both physicians recommend the flu vaccine — which can help prevent severe disease for those who do catch the virus — and frequent handwashing. Ezell also noted that wearing an N95 mask in crowded areas can prevent you from catching the virus, and a surgical mask can keep you from spreading viruses within your own home.

“It definitely is a completely, totally preventable disease,” Ezell said.

Individuals who are very young or very old are generally most at risk, he said, although he noted a better way to look at risk is by considering underlying health status. Those who are taking immunosuppressant medications for autoimmune conditions are more vulnerable to serious illness, he added. 

For children, those most vulnerable include babies who were born premature and kids with chronic illness, respiratory conditions and heart problems, Soria-Olmos said.

But even healthy kids can get seriously ill or die, she said, and you cannot predict which kids will have bad outcomes.

For individuals who do get the flu, rest, hydration and over-the-counter medications can help. Tarrant County residents can track this season’s respiratory illnesses using Tarrant County Public Health’s dashboard.

McKinnon Rice is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Her position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ""