MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Flu season has officially arrived in Alabama.
Dr. Scott Harris, state health officer at the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), told members of the department’s board Thursday that the percentage of patients presenting with influenza-like illnesses (ILI), such as fever and body aches, is at 3.39%, which indicates “pretty good flu activity going on.”
“Influenza-like illness surveillance is over that 3% threshold that we recognize, meaning there’s pretty widespread flu activity. We’re above the threshold that we set for last year,” Scott said.
Flu cases are concentrated primarily in northern Alabama, including the northeastern and Jefferson County districts. Southern regions, including Mobile, are seeing less impact so far.
While flu levels are not “sky high” yet, Alabama’s situation mirrors other states with moderate but outbreak-level activity, Harris said after the meeting. He said this year tracks similarly to past flu seasons despite the early rise in flu cases.
“For the last two years, flu season kind of started peaking right about the same time, right about the same week … This year, presumably, would be a normal flu season,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alabama’s ILI levels were lower than Georgia’s and Louisiana’s levels but higher than Mississippi and Florida for the week ending on November 30, while D.C. had the highest levels of ILI across the nation.
Harris urged residents to update their influenza vaccinations if they haven’t already this year, which are available for anyone six months or older.
“The best thing you can do is get your influenza vaccination updated this season,” Harris said.
He also asked residents to stay home if sick, particularly to protect vulnerable populations such as older adults, pregnant women, and young children.
This article originally appeared in the Alabama Reflector, an independent, nonprofit news outlet. It appears on FOX54.com under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
