Flu season and a handful of upper-respiratory illnesses have affected several local communities.
Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Amy Land is part of Covenant Health – Levelland’s South Clinic and detailed what she has seen in terms of illnesses that have become common throughout the winter.
“I don't think COVID-19 ever truly went away; we've just started seeing less numbers of it,” said Land. Flu numbers are off the charts right now.”
Land added that there has been a late start to the flu season as it typically starts between November or December. This year, the flu has hit particularly hard around January and February.
“This does happen from time to time,” explained Land. “It is also RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) season as well.”
Strep Throat is another upper-respiratory illness that has become commonplace this winter. Land did add that strep can be developed year-round, but more so in the winter months.
Preventative steps to combat the flu cannot always guarantee an individual they will not get it, but Land encourages those to get the flu vaccine as the first step.
“First and foremost, we recommend getting that flu vaccine. Does it mean that you're going to have 100% coverage of not getting the flu, no but the majority of the patients that we're seeing didn't get their flu vaccine,” explained Land. “I have had a couple of patients that did get their flu vaccine, and I think part of that is we start giving flu vaccines around September and October and then flu season kind of ran a little bit late this time.”
For those that have had their flu vaccine and still found themselves at the clinic, Land has noticed that the systems the individuals were experiencing were less severe.
In addition to getting the flu vaccine, Land encourages individuals to practice infection prevention.
Simple tips include: Wash hands frequently with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Also, washing hands before eating or preparing food, after coughing or sneezing, and after using the bathroom is encouraged.
Covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing is important.
Stay home when sick and at least stay home for at least 24 hours after the fever is gone. Do not return to work or school until fever-free for 24 hours without the use of a fever-reducing medicine. Clean common surfaces like doorknobs, handles, and keyboards.
For families, the flu season can be a stressful time. Once a household member gets it the question can become, when do we all get it?
“As a provider and the way that I practice, if I have a patient that comes in that does test positive for the flu there are two antiviral medications that are on the market today to help treat the flu. They lessen the severity of the symptoms and shorten the time span for which you feel bad,” explained Land. “I do offer that to the patient as treatment for their flu, but you can also give Tamiflu prophylactically to household members to hopefully prevent them from getting the flu.”
Households with children in school are highly encouraged to practice infection prevention as Land highlighted recent school districts having to close schools for a day to disinfect their facilities due to a high volume of students getting sick.
“That is where it's going to happen,” said Land. “You can’t stop school because of flu season and those areas where you have a group of people can become a place for it to easily spread.”
Another common complaint from community members has been the lingering effect of some systems which could span weeks or a month.
“This is difficult as a lot of times your cold, flu and COVID19 symptoms intermingle so you can't really pinpoint which specifically it is unless you get tested,” said Land. “Thankfully, we have COVID-19 tests readily available to our patients. Now, you can pick up a COVID-19 test at the grocery store, and I think a lot more people are doing testing.” Land also explained that with any upper respiratory viral infection symptoms can linger for weeks.
“Usually, the last thing to go is the cough,” said Land. “It is the most aggravating symptom that you have and it's going to be the last thing to go.”
Land also highlighted supportive care and symptom management as good practices. That includes treating the symptoms such as fever, body aches and headaches with things such as Tylenol or Motrin if not contraindicated (should not be used).
“A humidifier is an old old treatment regimen. We're really dry in this area and putting moisture back in the air will soothe that sore throat along with thinning out secretions,” added Land. “Using age-appropriate cough medicines that are readily available are great as well.”
Pulling data for the month of January, Land explained that 42% of patients tested positive for the flu, 5.7% tested positive for COVID-19 and the clinic is currently seeing 32% for flu.
As patients continue to be tested, more often than not the clinic will test for several illnesses. Land explained that as providers, testing for multiple things such as flu, RSV, strep and COVID-19 is necessary because symptoms can overlap and multiple of the mentioned illnesses can be had at one time.
“We have had some patients test positive for both COVID-19 and flu at the same time,” said Land. “We have had patients test positive for COVID-19 and RSV at the same time or flu and strep at the same time. You can have any of them and with their symptoms being so similar we test for all of them.”
As the winter season ends, Land is hopeful the number of patients will decrease in regard to the flu season.
“Hopefully we've seen the majority of the patients that are going to test positive for flu,” said Land. “Even in our clinic numbers compared to January, we're seeing less numbers coming into the clinic to be evaluated. I'm hoping that we're on the downhill side of this flu epidemic.”