Preventing Sickness During Flu Season

Since November of 2016 the ER, Urgent Care and Federally Qualified Health Center Visits have increased.

Dr. Vicki Whitacre from Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department said with this increase in Respiratory syncytial virus adults may feel like they have cold like symptoms, but with infants and children under 2 years of age can have more serious symptoms.

“Very young infants and babies are very susceptible to getting a cold and for an adult the cold is not so bad, but for the babies they get into trouble with breathing from colds and may even wheeze and may if they’re very sick have to be admitted to the hospital,” Whitacre said.

Dr. Whitacre said parents of young children should keep their children away from large crowds and to make sure that others don’t touch, cough, and sneeze around the child. For Adults Dr. Whitacre said they’re seeing colds, bronchial type respiratory infections, and flu type symptoms such as vomiting so people feeling ill should work on feeling better.

“Chicken noodle soup actually has antibodies in it, that has been proven to be helpful when you’re sick with a virus and another thing is that if you just try to drink and be hydrated that helps you too,” Whitacre said.

Dr. Whitacre said it’s good to wash hands often, stay home if very sick so it’s less likely to spread to others, and getting a flu shot will help.