COLUMBUS – With spring just around the corner, it seems flu season finally has hit Ohio.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
“What we can predict about the flu,” said Columbus Public Health spokesman Jose Rodriguez, “is that it will be unpredictable.”
After a mostly mild winter, the state saw a spike in flu-related hospitalizations during the last week in February — 203, up from 93 the previous week. That brings the total hospitalizations in the state to 653 since flu season began in October, compared to 7,985 at the same time last year, when the vaccine didn’t protect as well against the dominant flu strain.
Health officials say the season started late and is milder than the past three years, but getting the vaccine is still important, especially for the chronically ill, the elderly and pregnant women.
“Influenza vaccination is the safest and most effective way to prevent the flu, except for infants younger than 6-months old who aren’t eligible to receive it,” said Ohio Department of Health Medical Director Dr. Mary DiOrio.
She says numbers will continue to climb and preliminary figures show that they already have.
Last week, Franklin County saw 27 flu-associated hospitalizations, a 35 percent increase from the previous week, according to preliminary numbers. The county’s total for the season is 91.
“There are no flu vaccine shortages across Ohio,” DiOrio said. “The short time it will take to get a flu vaccine is much less than the time it will take you to recover from the flu.”
The vaccine is available at most healthcare providers’ offices, local health departments and retail pharmacies.
The state doesn’t report adult flu deaths and hasn’t recorded deaths of children this year.
Other effective ways to avoid getting or spreading it include washing hands frequently or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, covering coughs and sneezes with tissues or coughing or sneezing into elbows, avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth and staying home when sick and until fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication.