Flu Cases Growing in Mid-Mo

The flu outbreak is continuing to grow across the United States. Nationally 18 children have been killed by the disease so far this flu season. Although Missouri is not among the states getting hit hardest by the disease, in Mid Missouri Pharmacists said they have seen a spike in the disease this past month.”I mean, definitely per day, compared to all of December we definitely have seen an increase, in the Tamiflu prescriptions,” said Bill Morrissey who is a pharmacist at Kilgores. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said signs of the illness are picking up in the state. “We are seeing elevated activity in many states, and Missouri is actually one state that is showing elevated activity but it’s not showing widespread activity, which means there may not be elevated activity in all parts of the state,” said Michael Young with the CDC.Doctors in the Mid-Missouri have seen an increase in patients coming in because of the flu, and in response they’ve also increased staffing.”It was a different time last year, and was a late one, people were even talking are we going to have a flu, season, and this is in the range of when we will get the flu,” said Dr. Scott Schultz from Providence Urgent Care. Health officials also said that they’re seeing an increase in adults having the flu, not just children and the elderly who are most susceptible. “We do expect when the students come back from college in the next ten to 14 days, it’ll even get worse, and there will be more cases in town,” said Dr. Schultz.Doctors urge people to continue to take preventative measures, such as the flu shot until the season is over.