If you thought you escaped flu season unscathed, you might want to hold off on the celebration for a bit. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning the country that flu season isn’t over yet.
Luckily flu season has been pretty mild so far this year, but the CDC wants to remind everyone that the season isn’t quite over yet. The agency put out a health alert warning that influenza viruses are still circulating and that H3N2, an influenza strain known to cause more severe illnesses, is now gaining steam and making up a greater proportion of flu cases than it did early in the season when the milder H1N1 and influenza B were most prominent.
photo: sweetlouise via Pixabay
While the end of the season, which is just around the corner—flu season traditionally ends in May—the bad news is the flu shots protect better against those milder strains than they do against this H3N2 strain.
Until flu season officially comes to a close, the CDC recommends that people continue to be vigilant about their health, like washing hands regularly, staying home when they are sick and getting treated with antiviral medication at the first sign of illness. If you can still find one, it’s also never too late to get that flu shot.
—Shahrzad Warkentin
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