Have you gotten the flu this season? Odds are that you or someone you know was impacted by the flu this winter. But when will we see the flu wind down?
“The positivity rate in February was 90%,” said Dr. Jonathan Thierman, chief executive of LifeBridge ExpressCare Urgent Care Centers.
He said they’ve seen the number of flu cases at their clinics increase significantly this winter.
“I think that one of the things that drove this late flu spike was the concurrent extreme cold spike that we had around the same time,” he said.
Dr. Kerri Layman, chair of emergency medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said they’ve also seen quite a peak in flu cases recently.
“This year has been a very bad flu season,” Layman said. “We’re still seeing pretty high rates of flu test positivity, so about one in four tests are still positive.”
But she said she’s seeing the numbers come down, which is a good sign.
“In the last two weeks, the number of cases have started to wane a bit, so hopefully we’re seeing the peak and then it will start to decrease,” Layman said.
When will flu season be over?
“I hope before April, but I think only time will tell,” she said.
Thierman also said an April timeline seems about right.
“I would expect it’s going to continue to fall in March, certainly by April, we’ll see lower numbers,” he said.
But how can people protect themselves until then?
“The best thing to do is all the standard things we all learned during COVID and continue to do, which is mostly hand hygiene and preventing from touching your face or your nose, specifically after you’ve touched surfaces or other people,” Thierman said.
Both Thierman and Layman said it’s not too late to get the vaccine, and that a lot of people should plan to get the vaccine next year.
Making sure you’re teaching your children good habits, Layman said, is important as well.
“If you do get vaccinated, that might offer a bit of added protection. Some of the other ways to prevent flu are hand washing constantly, especially when thinking about young children,” she said.
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