Flu reaches near epidemic levels in Oklahoma

The flu was classified as an epidemic recently as more Americans are loosing their lives to the ailment.

Influenza, more commonly called the flu, is a virus that can last 24 to 48 hours. The symptoms include high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, chills, headache, coughing and drowsiness.

This year’s flu season has an 8.5 percent death rate, which is slightly higher than records from last year. Since Sept. 28 the flu has been the cause of death for 58 people in Oklahoma with 11 news deaths this week, according to the Tulsa World.

Assistant Professor of Nursing Shawna Hood said not all of the high death rates this year deal solely with flu, however.

“It’s probably because of secondary issues,” Hood said. “Not necessarily the issues associated with the flu, but something just happens or falls in the right way, you get something secondary and the outcomes are worse.”

NewsOk reported an Oklahoma City middle school student died this week from flu complication.

With more people getting the flu, some doctors are giving their patients antivirals, medicines intended to help decrease flu symptoms. A commonly prescribed antiviral is Tamiflu.

“If you take the medicine within two days, Tamiflu, will shorten the course of symptoms,” Hood said.

Junior Darian Minzenmayer and her husband, Peyton, both had the flu over the holiday weekend.

“The doctor told me that because we live together, I was most likely going to get it anyway, so she put both [of us] on prescription for Tamiflu,” Minzenmayer said. “And that’s what kind of killed it a little bit faster.”

Even with the help of Tamiflu, Minzenmayer and her husband still had to take the necessary precautions.

“We stayed on our medications pretty well,” Minzenmayer said. “The Tamiflu that [the doctor] prescribed us helped, and then she also gave us Ibuprofen to help keep the fever down. I drank a lot of tea [and] Peyton drank hot soup. I kept cough drops near me and drank a lot of water.”

Minzenmayer said people should be cautious about spreading the flu.

“People can still die from the flu, even if it’s not something that’s common, you still don’t want to spread it to children,” Minzenmayer said. “You don’t want your children to spread it to other children. So it’s important to keep them out of other contact with kids if they have it… It might be important to have your child take a flu test if they start showing symptoms that next day.”

While the flu shot is helpful in some cases, it is only 23 percent effective.

“Just because you get the flu shot does not mean you’re not going to get the flu,” Minzenmayer said.

People most likely to die from the flu are young children and people over the age of 60.

“It’s just because their immune systems aren’t quite as strong,” senior Nursing Major Kaitlin Evans said. “A lot of it has to do with, when people get the flu it can lead to pneumonia… and then respiratory complications. So they’re dying because of the respiratory complications. This is a pretty nasty strain that has been prevalent this year.”

People in their 20s, such as college students, have a better chance of overcoming the flu quickly due to their stronger immune systems, according to Evans.

“That’s their peak of health and immune functioning,” Evans said. “So if they get it [the flu], they’re more resilient and it’s more likely that they’re going to be able to overcome it. You have a stronger immune system and your body’s stronger.”

To avoid the flu, it is recommended for people to wash their hands, stay hydrated, be aware of the people around who might be sick and get the flu shot.

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