GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Jayson Stache of Green Bay contracted the flu, “It sucked. It ended up lasting almost four days.”
And Stache isn’t alone.
Ellen Roy, infection preventionist at Bellin Health, tells WLUK there has been an increase in flu cases
“We’ll we’ve seen that our emergency room visits have certainly been up, and we’ve had a couple patients hospitalized.”
Overall, health departments say it’s been a busy season.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ most recent report:
Since September through Feb. 4, 2017- 837 people were hospitalized with the flu.An increase of more than 700 people, compared to the 163 reported this time last year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control — our area is considered in the “high” category for the number of cases.
Roy says patients are seeing aggressive symptoms.
“You literally feel fine one minute, and next minute you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck; that’s what many people will share.”
She says another trend that they’re beginning to see is that the peak of flu season is coming even later in the year.
“Typically we see the peak in December, January but it seems like it’s coming later and later. Last year, we did see it through May which is very unusual”
She says with the recent uptick going around, it’s not too late get vaccinated
“We continue to offer the flu vaccine, especially now that we’re starting to see so much of it in the area.”
According to state health officials, there have been no flu-related deaths in the state this year.
