LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — With both strains of the flu ripping through central Kentucky as briskly as it is right now, doctors at the University of Kentucky felt the need to address the matter, given the high number of hospitalizations they are seeing across all three of their facilities.
“It’s not a record number, and they've started to come down a little bit in the last week,” said Dr. Nicholas Van Sickels with UK. “But with kids going back to school, back to work, people took off for the holidays, we're cautiously watching the numbers to see where things go.”
Dr. Van Sickels said to watch for certain things before coming to the hospital, such as trouble breathing, inability to eat or hydrate, or even get out of bed.
“Please come in and see us,” he said, if you experience any of those symptoms.
And as bad as the flu season has been so far, it’s likely we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.
“We are bracing for the next 4 to 5 weeks for us to get to peak,” said UK College of Medicine Pediatrician, Dr. Lindsay Ragsdale.
Both doctors offer the same suggestions to help prevent the spread of flu: thorough handwashing, covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when you are sick, and getting vaccinated. Both agreed that it is not too late in the season to benefit from the latter’s protection.
“If you got your flu shot today, you’d have some protection 2-3 days from now,” Dr. Ragsdale stated.
Dr. Van Sickels took it a step further when asked about a vaccine that might have missed the flu strains currently spreading in America.
“Even when we've had a worst match of flu vaccine it's saved millions of lives across the globe. So, I emphasize it's so important to get the flu shot to prevent serious illness and death from the flu, which is most cases can be preventable,” he said. “It is very safe.”
Dr. Van Sickels said there is no concern right now about overtaxing medical professionals at their hospitals due to a high patient volume, but they’d obviously like to avoid that situation. And as always, preventative maintenance, for lack of a better term, is still better than the alternative.
“I will say from a pediatric standpoint, prevention of infection is way better than trying on the back end, once a child is already sick,” Dr. Ragsdale stressed.
