Vaccinations are best way to handle flu season

Break out the hand sanitizer and vitamin C — flu season is here, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

“Anyone can get the flu, even healthy people,” Dr. Jerry Gibson, director of DHEC’s Bureau, said.

He said recently the flu vaccinations already should be available in local doctors’ offices and at the clinics set up by DHEC.

Gibson said the best way to be protected against the flu is to get a flu shot.

Sue Ann Avin, infection preventionist at Carolinas Hospital System, said although people commonly think of the flu as a common illness that will run its course, it can be a killer.

“About 5 to 20 percent of the population of the United States gets the flu every year on average,” she said. “There are usually more than 200,000 people hospitalized from flu complications each year and about 36,000 people die annually from it.”

Symptoms include a high fever, headache, extreme tiredness, a dry cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches, and often some stomach symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting.

Typically, it’s the complications from the virus that are deadly, Avin said.

“Older people, young children and people with certain medical conditions are at the the highest risk for the serious flu complications,” she said. “Some of the complications can be a bacterial pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, dehydration and sometimes the worsening of certain chronic health conditions.”

Flu season typically is considered from Oct. 1 until the end of March in the United States.

Avin said the best time for people to get a flu shot is as early into the flu season as possible. She said people can unknowingly spread the virus to others one day before showing symptoms and as many as five days after.

“It’s normally spread person to person through coughing and sneezing of people with influenza,” she said. “That’s why we encourage good hand hygiene. But the single best way to prevent getting influenza is by getting a vaccination each year.”

To find a DHEC sponsored flu clinic in the Pee Dee, call the DHEC Region 4 Office at (843) 661-4830.